Physicians should be exempt from a new $100,000 fee for workers from other countries who are in the U.S. on H-1B visas, the Chicago-based American Medical Association and 53 other medical societies told the federal government Thursday.
The medical associations wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday urging her to exempt all physicians — including residents, fellows and researchers — from the new fee. About one-fourth of licensed physicians in the U.S. were trained in other countries, according to the letter.
“… There is a growing need for a larger physician workforce that the U.S. cannot fill on its own, in part because the U.S. does not have enough people in the younger generation to care for our aging country,” according to the letter. “Accordingly, H-1B physicians play a critical role in filling this void, especially in areas of the U.S. with high-need populations.”
Many foreign doctors in the U.S. practice in areas with higher rates of poverty and chronic disease, the letter said. In 2021, about 64% of foreign-trained physicians were practicing in areas with a shortage of medical care or health care professionals, according to the letter.
The H-1B program is for employers who want to hire workers from other countries who have highly specialized knowledge. The idea behind the program is to help employers who can’t find the workers they need in the U.S.
On Sept. 19, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation requiring employers to pay $100,000 for new H-1B visas.
“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor,” according to the proclamation. “The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security.”
The proclamation stated that abuse of the H-1B program has made it difficult for college graduates to find information technology jobs and has led to tech companies laying off American workers in favor of foreign workers.
Bloomberg reported earlier this week that doctors may be among those exempted from the new requirement.
In the letter sent Thursday, the medical associations pointed to a part of the proclamation that says the new restriction won’t apply to a worker or industry if the secretary of Homeland Security determines that the hiring of the worker “is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.” The associations are asking Noem to clarify that physicians should be among exemptions.
Other medical associations that also signed the letter include the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics, the Northfield-based College of American Pathologists and the Chicago-based American College of Surgeons, among others.