Mr. Speaker, I rise as well to support the legislation, H.R. 5571, and to commend the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Immigration of the House Judiciary Committee for her leadership on this issue,…
Mr. Speaker, I rise as well to support the legislation, H.R. 5571, and to commend the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Immigration of the House Judiciary Committee for her leadership on this issue, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. I thank the manager of the bill, Mr. Scott, for his leadership; our chairman of the full committee; our ranking member of the full committee; and the ranking member of the Immigration Subcommittee, Mr. King of Iowa.
This is an embracing and unifying initiative. Why? Because we all understand the necessity of health care in America. We understand the importance of providing access to health care no matter where you live. And I thank Mr. Blake Chisam and my staff, Mr. Arthur Sidney, for working on language that I proposed to emphasize the importance of the provision that these doctors receive and should be guided by language that indicate that they should be utilized in areas that are underserved, that there are doctors that are not serving the area.
So that foreign doctors who will benefit from the waiver provisions, which means eliminating the need for foreign medical doctors to return to their native land, will be utilized or encouraged to be utilized in areas around the country. The language in particular reads: It is the sense of Congress that Federal programs waiving the J-1 home residency requirement for physicians are generally designed to promote the delivery of critically needed medical services to Americans lacking adequate access to physician care, and that when determining the qualification of location for a waiver petition, the Department of Health and Human Services should always consider the needs of vulnerable populations in low-income and impoverished communities, communities with high infant mortality rates, rural areas, and communities exhibiting other signs of a lack of necessary physician services.
In my State of Texas, we have been fighting for this for a very long time. In the rural parts of Texas, we are lacking in medical services and physicians. It's very important when these waivers are given that these physicians are utilized where they can best serve, and that is in vast number of areas that do not have access to health care.
I support this legislation, H.R. 5571, and I think as it comes to the floor, it contains all the elements that suggest a benefit that brings about a burden, but not a burden that is negative but a burden to serve those who are in desperate need. Many of our country are, and these physicians can help them. With that, I believe this is an important bill.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5571, to extend for 5 years the program relating to waiver of the foreign country residence requirement with respect to international medical graduates. The purpose of this bill is to extend for 5 years the program relating to a waiver of the foreign country residence requirement with respect to international medical graduates. I support this bill.
The Immigration and Nationality Act allows for foreign doctors to train in the United States under the ``J-1'' visa program, otherwise known as non-immigrants in the ``Exchange Visitor Program.'' This Exchange Visitor Program seeks to promote peaceful relations and mutual understanding with other countries through educational and cultural exchange programs. Accordingly, many exchange visitors, including doctors in training, are subject to a requirement that they must return to their home country to share with their countrymen the knowledge, experience, and impressions gained during their stay in the United States. Unless U.S. Customs and Immigration Service approves a waiver of this requirement, the exchange visitors must depart from the United States and live in their home country for 2 years before they are allowed to apply for an immigrant visa, permanent residence, or a new non-immigrant status.
A waiver of the 2 year foreign residency requirement is available for doctors who have trained in the United States under the J-1 visa if a State or an interested Federal agency sponsors the physician exchange visitor to work in a health manpower shortage area within the State for 3 years as a non-immigrant in H-1B status (temporary worker in specialty occupation). The Secretary of Health and Human Services determines which areas have a health manpower shortage.
The availability of this waiver will sunset on June 1, 2008. H.R. 5571 would extend this waiver for 5 years to ensure that areas in the United States with a shortage of doctors have an option to hire a doctor with a J-1 visa for 3 years where there is no other doctor available to fill the job.
I worked with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren to ensure that the foreign doctors who will benefit from the waiver provisions, eliminating the need for the foreign medical doctors to return to their native land, will be
required to work in impoverished and underserved inner-city and urban communities. I believe that this is important because Americans who need access to medical care, the poor and needy, will benefit. This would be a tremendous improvement in the U.S. medical system and would move us closer to garnering access to healthcare for all.
Specifically, I worked to include the following language in the bill:
It is the sense of Congress that Federal programs waiving
the J-1 home residency requirement for physicians are
generally designed to promote the delivery of critically
needed medical services to Americans lacking adequate access
to physician care and that when determining the qualification
of a location for a waiver petition, the Department of Health
and Human Services should always consider the needs of
vulnerable populations in low-income and impoverished
communities, communities with high infant mortality rates,
rural areas, and communities exhibiting other signs of a lack
of necessary physician services.
Across this great Nation the health disparities between minority and majority populations are staggering. Most major diseases--diabetes, heart disease, prostate cancer, HIV/AIDS, low-birth-weight babies--all hit the minority communities harder. Minorities consistently have decreased access to care, and receive lower quality care, when they do have access. As the economy continues to falter and as the unemployment rate spikes, millions of Americans are losing their health insurance. That state of affairs will only make the health disparities worse. Consider these statistics:
African-American women are nearly three times as likely to die from pregnancy complications and childbirth as White women.
Native American, African-American and Hispanic women are most likely to receive inadequate prenatal care.
Compared with White women, African American women are twice as likely and Hispanic women are nearly three times as likely to be uninsured. Furthermore, African Americans and Hispanics are much more likely than Whites to lack a usual source of care and to encounter other difficulties in obtaining needed care.
Certain minorities also have much higher rates of diabetes-related complications and death, in some instances by as much as 50 percent more than the total population. It is truly an epidemic.
Nearly 31 percent of African American girls in the 4th grade were overweight in 2001.
Thirteen percent of Houston high school students are overweight and 17 percent are at risk.
Thirty-four percent of African American women are obese, compared to 19 percent of White women.
Forty-four percent of African American women are projected to be obese by 2020, and 47 percent by 2040.
As of February 2006, African-Americans represented only 13 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 40 percent of the 944,306 AIDS cases diagnosed since the start of the epidemic and approximately half, 49 percent, of the 42,514 cases diagnosed in 2004 alone.
African-Americans also account for half of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the 35 States/areas with confidential name-based reporting.
The AIDS case rate per 100,000 population among African-American adults/adolescents was nearly 10.2 times that of Whites in 2004.
African-Americans accounted for 55 percent of deaths due to HIV in 2002 and their survival time after an AIDS diagnosis is lower on average than it is for other racial/ethnic groups.
HIV was the third leading cause of death for African-Americans, ages 25-34, in 2002 compared to the sixth leading cause of death for Whites and Latinos in this age group.
African-American women account for the majority of new AIDS cases among women, 67 percent in 2004; while White women account for 17 percent and Latinos 15 percent. Among African-Americans, African- American women represent more than a third, 36 percent, of AIDS cases diagnosed in 2004.
Although African-American teens, ages 13-19, represent only 15 percent of U.S. teenagers, they accounted for 66 percent of new AIDS cases reported among teens in 2003.
It is my hope that the language that I worked to get included in the bill will promote the delivery of critically needed medical services to Americans in low-income and impoverished communities, rural areas, and communities that are in desperate need of physician services.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
