Internal medicine physicians who were not born in the U.S. treated 22 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2024, but Trump administration immigration policies may put a dent in that workforce, exacerbating care shortages for the underserved, researchers said.
Patients treated by doctors born abroad were more likely to come from underserved populations than those treated by doctors born in the U.S., Giacomo Meille, PhD, of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), and colleagues reported in a research letter in JAMA.
Specifically, more patients treated by doctors born abroad were Black (9.5% vs 7%), Latino (6.6% vs 3.9%), dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid (20.9% vs 11.7%) and living in high-poverty zip codes (19.8% vs 15.9%), they reported.
"We found that these foreign-born physicians are disproportionately helping to serve communities that have more difficulties accessing care," Meille told MedPage Today.
Physicians who aren't U.S. citizens have run into immigration difficulties during the second Trump administration, including exorbitant visa fees and travel bans.
