America's healthcare system is straining under the twin pressures of an aging population and a stretched pool of healthcare providers. Doctors told Fortune that policies limiting skilled visas and student entries could deepen labor shortages in areas such as geriatrics and rural medicine, where immigrant staff have long filled gaps. Physicians urge clearer pathways for skilled workers to stay, warning that without them, the system's capacity to care for older Americans may falter.
If you or your loved ones have ever been sick, you may have encountered a Filipino medical professional at the clinic or hospital-a nurse, doctor, or lab technician-or perhaps an in-home caregiver or staffer in an assisted living facility. This is because Filipinos are disproportionately represented in the healthcare sector-for example, 4 percent of US nurses are Filipino, though Filipinos make up only 1 percent of the population.
But even in the best-funded clinics with the most committed professionals, standards can still fall short; doctors, like the rest of us, are working with stone age minds. Despite years of training, human brains are not optimally equipped for the pace, pressure, and complexity of modern healthcare. Given that patient care is medicine's core purpose, the question is who, or what, is best placed to deliver it?
Nursing homes are facing staff shortages exacerbated by immigration policy changes, leading to the loss of employees with Temporary Protected Status. This impacts caregiving roles significantly.
"It certainly is challenging to expose medical students early in their careers to the joys of this kind of integrated healthcare," Reddy said. "The relationships we build and the care we provide truly allow people to live longer with a better quality of life."
