Healthcare professional Michael Liu, and others like him, are reevaluating their career paths in the U.S. due to concerns over funding cuts, immigration policies, and the perceived devaluation of their contributions. The article highlights the impact of these changes on foreign-born medical professionals, including those with green cards, and the broader implications for the healthcare system.
With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong,Michael Liu grew up in Toronto, Canada, then moved to the U.
S. for college and medical school because, to him, America was the premiere destination for fulfilling his aspirations to become a physician and researcher. "You know, in chase of the American Dream, and understanding all the opportunities — that was such a draw for me," says Liu, who attended Harvard University. He is now 28 and has deep personal and professional roots in Boston, where he's an internal medicine resident at Mass General Brigham. But this spring, he was shaken by the Trump administration's cuts to scientific research at the National Institutes of Health and staff at the Department of Health and Human Services."That was a really striking moment for me," Liu says."It made me question where, professionally, it made most sense for me. I still have strong connections to Toronto and mentors.", which are for highly trained professionals, to $100,000. He watched his colleagues' tearful reactions to the sudden uncertainty that thrust on their careers, knowing that employers like hospital systems are unlikely to be able to afford to pay for such dramatic increases."It was terrible to see," Liu says. He has a green card, having married an American citizen earlier this year. But, he says, the Trump administration's actions affect him. "It feels like my contribution is — just because I was not born in this country — less valued," Liu says."I really hadn't thought so deeply about going back home before, but definitely it's been much more top of mind."including nurses or other critical health care workers — living and working in the U.S., who were born and trained elsewhere.She says policies defunding everything from scientific research to public health have damaged the U.S.'s reputation to the point where she hears from hospitals and universities that top international talent are no longer interested in coming to America."Up until this year, it was a dream — a wish! — that you could get a job and you could come to the U.S. And now nobody wants to come."and Australia are taking advantage by recruiting international talent away from the U.S. — including American-born doctors and medical researchers — by promising stable grant funding and state-of-the-art facilities abroad.Immigrant physicians have historically found jobs in U.S. communities with serious health care staff shortages to begin with, so those places also stand to see more impact from curtailed international hiring, says Michael Liu, the Boston medical resident.estimating that 11,000 doctors, or roughly 1% of the country's physicians, currently have H1B visas."That might seem like a small number, but this percentage varied widely across geographies," he said, and they tend to congregate in the least-resourced areas, reaching up to 40% of physicians in some communities. "High poverty counties had a four times higher prevalence of H1B physicians; we also saw that same pattern in rural communities," he says. (Many physicians and physicianfrom the new H1B fees. HHS did not respond to requests seeking comment about recent visa policies and health care workersFor the past six decades, immigrants have contributed heavily to the U.S.'s reputation as the undisputed world leader in health research and practice. In pay and prestige, the U.S. has been unparalleled, helping attract the world's best talent — at the expense of their home countries. That began in 1965, during a period of expanding federal investment in public health and scientific research, spurred by international competition and fueled by Cold War rivalries over events like the Soviet launch of"Overnight, you have 25 million — approximately — people who can now access health care services," Alam says. Passage that year of theOver the following decade, the U.S. granted visas to 75,000 physicians, and by 1975, roughly 45% of all U.S. doctors were immigrants, Alam says. The U.S.'s first-rate reputation allowed it to attract more physician talent than America could educate and train:"There were more immigrant physicians that were entering the labor force per year than there were U.S. trained physicians that were joining," she says. Now, Alam says, the U.S. is undoing a lot of that, as it dismantles its global leadership role in medicine and science, and narrows its borders.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else.Turkey discounts
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