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More programmers to free the economy? Come on... To REALLY free the economy we need a million of doctors from France, India, UK and Cuba competing here, locall

More programmers to free the economy? Come on... To REALLY free the economy we need a million of doctors from France, India, UK and Cuba competing here, locally, against our home grown millionaire surgeons. The #1 reason companies are outsourcing and people are leaving is this enormous burden of medical racketeering. Come on, the world is so much larger than the information technology sector and most problems that can't be solved by coding.

maggie 17y ago
Freeing the H1-B wouldn't just help out programmers, but all disciplines, including doctors.
jquery 17y ago
Yes, and we could also get rid of the requirement of an undergrad before med school, as well as increase the caps on med school enrollment. There is so much low hanging fruit that has mysteriously remained almost completely absent in the current USA health care debate.
gojomo 17y ago
Liberalizing immigration in all other skilled industries is a good idea, too. ADDED: Note that neither "programmer" nor "software" appear in the original article: the author is talking about all H1-Bs, which includes medical specialists. (Though, licensing issues might prove a more significant employment barrier for foreign doctors than immigration rules, and those also need to be addressed.)
bilbo0s 17y ago
Your words will be lost on most people here friend. For them, 'raising money' is 'creating wealth'. <sigh> I agree though, we should stop bringing in programmers and start bringing in doctors.
TriinT 17y ago
After the collapse of the USSR, lots of medical doctors and other specialized workers found themselves without a job. Today in Western Europe you can find construction workers who were doctors in the Ukraine SSR or Moldova in the 1980s, These people are a huge source of qualified work, but to the best of my knowledge only one country (Portugal) has shown any interest in re-training them as doctors to meet the severe lack of qualified medical personnel. It's interesting to note that in the former Soviet republics, being a doctor did not have the same status (let alone financial compensation) as in the West. I know that Canada has been trying to lure medical doctors from abroad (Eastern Europe and elsewhere) in recent years, but they're after the young graduates, not the old veterans who were disowned by the fall of Communism. Unfortunately, the doctors' lobby in the U.S. is too powerful. In order to keep their salaries inflated, they will never allow the U.S. to import doctors from abroad, even if that would mean that the average American would have access to more affordable healthcare.
- fortes 17y ago
  Little Portugal can't take on the huge surplus of doctors from Eastern Europe -- many still end up construction workers as well (although the salaries compared to back home end up being worth it). Definitely a shame we can't get them to the US. It is insane that we have roughly the same number of doctors as we did 30 years ago, despite increases in population and average age.
  - TriinT 17y ago
    I don't know much about Portugal, but I know it's a small country. I didn't claim that Portugal can take on the huge surplus of doctors from Eastern Europe, but they seem to be taking steps in the right direction, just like they did on drug decriminalization. Other countries could and should follow Portugal's steps. Not all of healthcare consists of curing cancer and performing open heart surgery. A lot of medical practice is terribly dull and vanilla. It would be hard to go against the doctors' lobby, but perhaps a compromise could be reached. Doctors want to keep their salaries high. People want affordable healthcare. There are a lot of people who simply can't afford healthcare anyway, so they are not even in the market. Re-training foreign doctors could be a step towards a more-affordable healthcare system. Worst-case scenario, ask Bill Gates for a couple of billion USD. Hire foreign doctors, retrain them and place in Vancouver. Then allow American citizens to cross the border to have access to healthcare. The colluding doctors of the U.S. could not fight it.
    - fortes 17y ago
      Nurse practitioners have a been a stopgap, providing basic care. Doctor's lobbies have been fighting against those in various states too though, sadly. They're quite powerful.
- netsp 17y ago
  Letting an opportunity like that slide (from the perspective of US employers) cals in to question the US' supposed non socialist system.
  - 17y ago
andrew_k 17y ago
I know several guys, who were doctors in former USSR, came to US, and now are working in department stores, or driving a taxi, because the path to get licensed in the US is too long, overcomplicated, and costs lots of money.
sandGorgon 17y ago
This reminded me of Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty (of Narayan Hrudayalaya, Karnataka, India) who created a very innovative Micro-health scheme (http://www.yeshasvini.org/ http://www.yeshasvini.org/) of distributing the cost of heart surgery among the masses for a meager 10 cents (5 Rs) a month. Today, approximately 1.6 million farmers are eligible to receive heart surgeries (and 955 other surgery types) He has recently started getting traction in New Delhi for a similar scheme. http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/india/Delhi-does-not-want-me-says-top-doctor/Article1-442014.aspx http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/india/Delhi-does-not-want... http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4585.html http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4585.html

maggie 17y ago

Freeing the H1-B wouldn't just help out programmers, but all disciplines, including doctors.

jquery 17y ago

Yes, and we could also get rid of the requirement of an undergrad before med school, as well as increase the caps on med school enrollment. There is so much low hanging fruit that has mysteriously remained almost completely absent in the current USA health care debate.

gojomo 17y ago

Liberalizing immigration in all other skilled industries is a good idea, too. ADDED: Note that neither "programmer" nor "software" appear in the original article: the author is talking about all H1-Bs, which includes medical specialists. (Though, licensing issues might prove a more significant employment barrier for foreign doctors than immigration rules, and those also need to be addressed.)

bilbo0s 17y ago

Your words will be lost on most people here friend. For them, 'raising money' is 'creating wealth'. <sigh> I agree though, we should stop bringing in programmers and start bringing in doctors.

TriinT 17y ago

After the collapse of the USSR, lots of medical doctors and other specialized workers found themselves without a job. Today in Western Europe you can find construction workers who were doctors in the Ukraine SSR or Moldova in the 1980s, These people are a huge source of qualified work, but to the best of my knowledge only one country (Portugal) has shown any interest in re-training them as doctors to meet the severe lack of qualified medical personnel. It's interesting to note that in the former Soviet republics, being a doctor did not have the same status (let alone financial compensation) as in the West. I know that Canada has been trying to lure medical doctors from abroad (Eastern Europe and elsewhere) in recent years, but they're after the young graduates, not the old veterans who were disowned by the fall of Communism. Unfortunately, the doctors' lobby in the U.S. is too powerful. In order to keep their salaries inflated, they will never allow the U.S. to import doctors from abroad, even if that would mean that the average American would have access to more affordable healthcare.

fortes 17y ago
Little Portugal can't take on the huge surplus of doctors from Eastern Europe -- many still end up construction workers as well (although the salaries compared to back home end up being worth it). Definitely a shame we can't get them to the US. It is insane that we have roughly the same number of doctors as we did 30 years ago, despite increases in population and average age.
- TriinT 17y ago
  I don't know much about Portugal, but I know it's a small country. I didn't claim that Portugal can take on the huge surplus of doctors from Eastern Europe, but they seem to be taking steps in the right direction, just like they did on drug decriminalization. Other countries could and should follow Portugal's steps. Not all of healthcare consists of curing cancer and performing open heart surgery. A lot of medical practice is terribly dull and vanilla. It would be hard to go against the doctors' lobby, but perhaps a compromise could be reached. Doctors want to keep their salaries high. People want affordable healthcare. There are a lot of people who simply can't afford healthcare anyway, so they are not even in the market. Re-training foreign doctors could be a step towards a more-affordable healthcare system. Worst-case scenario, ask Bill Gates for a couple of billion USD. Hire foreign doctors, retrain them and place in Vancouver. Then allow American citizens to cross the border to have access to healthcare. The colluding doctors of the U.S. could not fight it.
  - fortes 17y ago
    Nurse practitioners have a been a stopgap, providing basic care. Doctor's lobbies have been fighting against those in various states too though, sadly. They're quite powerful.
netsp 17y ago
Letting an opportunity like that slide (from the perspective of US employers) cals in to question the US' supposed non socialist system.
- 17y ago

andrew_k 17y ago

I know several guys, who were doctors in former USSR, came to US, and now are working in department stores, or driving a taxi, because the path to get licensed in the US is too long, overcomplicated, and costs lots of money.

sandGorgon 17y ago

This reminded me of Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty (of Narayan Hrudayalaya, Karnataka, India) who created a very innovative Micro-health scheme (http://www.yeshasvini.org/ http://www.yeshasvini.org/) of distributing the cost of heart surgery among the masses for a meager 10 cents (5 Rs) a month. Today, approximately 1.6 million farmers are eligible to receive heart surgeries (and 955 other surgery types) He has recently started getting traction in New Delhi for a similar scheme. http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/india/Delhi-does-not-want-me-says-top-doctor/Article1-442014.aspx http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/india/Delhi-does-not-want... http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4585.html http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4585.html