1219 



can universities; they broadened the horizons of American students 

 and educators studyincr abroad who were brought into direct contact 

 with other cultures and other civilizations : they opened up the Ameri- 

 can educational environment to new and enriching influences from in- 

 coming foreign students ; they provided the means for encouraging the 

 inflow of young, energetic, new citizens whose potentialities were yet 

 to be realized as researchers, educators, and professional workers in 

 other fields; and, not least of all, they fostered a spirit of internation- 

 alism within a new generation of Americans. 



Nor do these estimates take into account the contributions of the 

 many thousands of immigrant professionals, ranging from the Ger- 

 man-born space scientist Wernher Von Braun and the Nobel Prize 

 nominee and Cuban refugee pediatric cardiologist Augustin Castel- 

 lanos, to those many unknown scientists and engineers working in this 

 country's research laboratories, striving to achieve its national pur- 

 poses and to advance the frontiers of knowledge. Such contributions 

 and benefits are of a magnitude that is indeed "immeasurable," but 

 they are nevertheless real, and this country is much the greater and 

 the richer for them. 



EASING DOCTOR SHORTAGE THROUGH FMG's 



Benefits to the Ignited States from FMGs derive mainly from their 

 role in easing the doctor shortage. As noted above, for many years the 

 United States has failed to produce sufficient numbers of doctors to 

 meet the rising national demand of health care. Tables 30 and fSl, re- 

 produced from Rashi Fein's study for the Brookings Institution on 

 the doctor shortage, provide historical perspective on this problem.^^^ 



Doctor Shortage^ a Reality. — With probably few exceptions, sources 

 on medical brain drain maintain that there is a doctor shortage in the 

 United States. Most frequently cited are the Public Health Service 

 figures of an estimated shortage of 50,000 physicians, 150,000 nurses, 

 and more than 250,000 allied health care.^^^ The Department of Labor 

 reported a shortage in 1966 of 100,000 physicians in the United States. 

 Data from the Public Plealth Service indicate a need for 400,000 

 physicians by 1975, approximately 110,000 more than there were in 

 1968. Other sources, including Rashi Fein, perceive a present shortage 

 that will worsen in the future.^*" Stevens and Vermeulen note that 

 shortages in hospital staffing are "critical," and they cite the Ameri- 

 can Hospital Association which, in collaboration with Government 

 agencies, estimates that American hospitals are currently short 10,000 

 physicians, the addition needed to provide optimal patient care.'*^ 



^"* Rashi Fein. The Doctor Shortage: An Economic Diagnosis, (Washington : Brookings 

 Institution. 1967). p. 199. 



^^ Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.) cited these figures In an address to the National 

 Kldnev Foundation. {New York Times, Nov. 22. 1970. p. 40.) 



s'o Marculles and Bloch, op. clt.. pp. 22-23. The Preamble to an Act passed In 1972 setting 

 up nine Federall.v sponsored medical schools referred to a shortace of 48.000 doctors and 

 over 2.50.000 allied health and other medical personnel. {Washington Star-Daily News, 

 Nov. 23. 1972. p. B-5. ) The same press report cites Richard I. Johnson, a health care man- 

 agement consultant, as setting the shortage at about 130.000 today and projecting l!?0,000 

 by 1980. 



5" Stevens and Vermeulen, op. clt., pp. 24 and 25. 



