The U.S. healthcare crisis is often talked about in terms of high costs and the roles of private insurance. What is not at the forefront of the conversation is the lack of doctors—the actual people needed to make medical care and services possible. In rural communities, approximately 1 in 10 doctors are practicing leaving roughly 84 million Americans in “Health Care Professional Shortage Areas.”

Making matters worse, as the current population of doctors continue to age and medical school enrollment is growing only by 1.5% per year, there simply won’t be enough doctors in a decade. So where does the U.S. go from here? How does we address the shortage of medical professionals in the U.S?

We attract the brightest medical students from across the globe.

Of course, there are immigration laws and policies that affect our ability to bring talented people into the U.S. as our system is often keeping people out. Without Congressional action, certain steps toward addressing doctor shortages become harder, but not impossible. It is already working in initiatives like UCLA’s “International Medical Graduate Program.”

International medical students and medical professionals are the resource the U.S. needs to truly solve our healthcare crisis. They are too valuable to keep out, so we must continue to bring them in.

Read more on International Policy Digest.

AMO offers U.S. clinical rotations for international medical students and graduates. AMO is the easiest way to obtain U.S. clinical experience and start your path toward U.S. residency. Visit our website to create an account and apply for one of our rotations, today.