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Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson (IL-15), a member of the House Rural Health Care Coalition, says passage of S. 2302 will greatly benefit dozens of rural communities in his Eastern Illinois district by filling doctor shortages and improving the overall quality of health care. Rep. Johnson has joined his House colleagues in passing this bill and it now goes to the President for his signature.
"There are cities in my district that offer the highest quality health care to residents, but there are also areas that are removed from the cities and cannot afford to provide the wide-range of necessary health care services due to a much smaller population," said Johnson. "While hospitals and health care facilities in Iroquois, Ford, Lawrence and Wabash Counties play critical roles to area residents, they do continue facing physician shortages - therefore a decrease in medical services. The House has passed legislation to put some of the best trained doctors back into the rural communities where they are needed most."
S. 2302 is a bill that will 'improve access to physicians in medically underserved areas.' It addresses this problem by extending an existing waiver program for foreign doctors to June 2006. The bill continues the practice of allowing foreign doctors receiving waivers to receive H-1B visas without increasing the annual H-1B visa quota. Historically, American-trained foreign doctors must leave the country for two years before returning to the United States to practice medicine. Under the waiver program, foreign doctors that complete their schooling and residency programs at American unviersities and hospitals are eligible to remain in the United States if they agree to serve in medically underserved communities for three years.
Rep. Johnson has served the 15th District in the U.S. Congress since 2001. Since then, he has also served on the Rural Health Care Coalition, a group of Representatives whose primary objective is to increase the quality and availability of health care in rural parts of America. Johnson has made visits to several rural health care facilities around the 15th District and continues to champion their needs in Washington, D.C.
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