Rural healthcare will be strained by Homeland Security
In the unexpected consequences category, my brother, who works at Healtheon, points to this Wall Street Journal story. His note: "Don't know if you saw this one, it represents a very basic and pragmatic way that the change in immigration law will impact large sections of the country."
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at December 30, 2002 12:59 PM | TrackBack
The nation's heightened focus on homeland security has reached to far corners of the country in an unexpected way: It is complicating immigration programs that encourage foreign doctors to serve in communities that have a hard time recruiting medical professionals.
Concerns that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have caused the cancellation of one immigration program designed to lure foreign doctors to underserved rural areas. Security worries also have stalled an effort in Congress to loosen restrictions that have crimped a second program that draws doctors into both rural and urban areas needing medical help.
Taken together, the steps have raised worries, particularly in rural America, that an important avenue of health care is being choked off. In Congress, in the courts and inside the federal bureaucracy, some are beginning to push back.