It's idiotic the US would bar skilled workers of any category, but the story is even worse than blocking foreign medical students from (already far too limited)

It's idiotic the US would bar skilled workers of any category, but the story is even worse than blocking foreign medical students from (already far too limited) residency slots. Even if they were able to come here to train, there likely wouldn't be jobs waiting for them on the other side. My wife is a chief resident at a top-ranked program in Emergency Medicine (Level I hospital with volume of 100k+ pts annually, multiple sites, etc.). Perfect USMLE scores, etc. She's good at what she does. A few years ago we considered her career fortunate because it is stable and portable: the demand for emergency medical care is inelastic and perpetual, and she could likely get a job almost anywhere paying a salary high enough to live comfortably. She is finishing her training this year and just started looking for a job, only to discover a horrifying truth: almost no hospitals are hiring physicians specialized in emergency medicine. Let that sink in. In the middle of a global pandemic, when the medical system is overwhelmed by undifferentiated patients, hospitals are not trying to expand the number of doctors on the front-line. It's bananas. The reason for this is entirely financial; high-reimbursement procedures are not being carried out in adequate volume, and treating patients with COVID-19 is not revenue generating when a plurality are uninsured/under-insured and treated by mandate due to EMTALA. Medicaid/medicare payments barely keep the lights on, and there simply aren't enough insured patients transiting the hospital to support staffing up to respond to pandemic conditions. It's maddening. Universal healthcare would go a long way to solving the problem, but sacrifices will need to be made on the hospital side as well, with lower salaries for providers and (largely ossified and inept) administrators. The pandemic pushed hospital financials into the red. Physician groups in myriad specialties across the country have taken voluntary or required salary cuts to help the system stay afloat, but something has to give at a societal level. If we had better national leadership, this crisis would be an opportunity to rethink how we pay for and deliver healthcare in this country, but we don't, so it it's all a giant slow-speed car crash. The future is not bright unless we get the pandemic under control, but that too looks like a dumpster fire thanks to politicization of life-saving control measures. If I were a foreign medical grad, I'd be smart to complete my training in any country other than the US—at least for the foreseeable future. (and other countries, if you're listening: this is a great time to make it easy for high-skill workers from the US to obtain work visas and citizenship)