Recent headlines are sending shockwaves through the medical community and vulnerable neighborhoods alike. As highlighted in a May 2026 report by The New York Times, stringent new travel bans and shifting U.S. immigration policies are effectively blocking thousands of foreign-born doctors from entering or remaining in the United States. This political maneuver has poured gasoline on an already burning question: Is the country actually running out of doctors?
Many Americans struggle to get an appointment sooner than they need with a primary care provider or a specialist. Wait times are reaching astronomical heights; meanwhile, the “physician shortage” story is frequently told in a very limited way. To understand why your doctor is always overbooked and how international politics directly impacts your local clinic, we have to look at the structural cracks in the healthcare system.
What the claim says
The mainstream narrative regarding the American healthcare system frequently centers on a dire warning: the United States is facing a catastrophic physician shortage. This claim suggests that our medical institutions are failing to keep pace with the demographic shift known as the “Silver Tsunami” – the massive influx of aging Baby Boomers who require increasingly complex and frequent medical interventions.
This is happening for several reasons. Firstly, medical school applications remain high, but the number of available residency slots (post-graduate training) has not expanded proportionally, effectively capping the number of new doctors who can actually enter the workforce. It’s also important to note that as the population grows older, the prevalence of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cognitive decline rises, necessitating a larger workforce of specialists and primary care providers.
Beyond this, it’s been highlighted that existing doctors are leaving the field at record rates due to administrative burdens and exhaustion, further widening the gap between patient needs and available “white coats.”
What the science actually says
The science confirms a shortage, but the root cause is much more complex than a lack of medical students. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by the year 2036. However, medical school enrollments have actually increased significantly over the last two decades.
Anne Kamwila, Healthcare Policy Analyst, explains, “The real reason is the residency system. Physicians attend medical school and then complete residency training programs to become licensed to practice. These are limited-residency positions (and are heavily subsidized by the Federal Government through Medicare funding). Obviously, there have not been many plans to create additional residency positions in recent decades, so thousands of doctors after graduation are unable to practice.”
Additionally, the U.S. depends on skilled International Medical Graduates (IMGs) and doctors trained abroad to complement the system. In these countries, sweeping travel restrictions and strict immigration policies can render these doctors ineligible for visas, creating an urgent, localized crisis rather than a long-term one.
Why misconceptions about the doctor shortage exist
The misconception that we need to “build more medical schools” persists because the shortage varies widely by location. It is a problem of maldistribution rather than a pure numbers game.
If you live in a wealthy, urban area like Manhattan or Beverly Hills, you likely do not feel a shortage at all; you probably have your pick of world-class specialists on every corner. But if you live in a rural farming community or a marginalized urban neighborhood, the shortage is a daily reality.
Doctors tend to cluster in affluent, metropolitan areas where salaries are higher, and resources are plentiful, leaving vast “medical deserts” across the rest of the country.
The real risks
The real risk of the physician shortage is the disproportionate harm it causes vulnerable communities. This is where the immigration bans become a public health emergency.
Foreign-born doctors are statistically much more likely to practice in high-need, rural and low-income areas that American-born medical graduates tend to avoid. By restricting the flow of IMGs into the country, policies are actively stripping communities that rely on them most of their access to healthcare.
You cannot discuss a doctor shortage without looking at burnout. Doctors are leaving the profession in droves – not because they do not love medicine, but because of administrative overload. Studies show that for every hour a doctor spends face-to-face with a patient, they spend two hours doing data entry in electronic health records. Reforming the processes behind health insurance and administrative charting work is critical to keeping the doctors we already have!
Which specialty has the largest physician shortage?
The most severe shortages are in primary care, specifically Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, a Sage Journal publication reports. Because the U.S. healthcare system financially rewards highly specialized procedures (like orthopedic surgery or cardiology), medical students carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt are often influenced in their career choices. As a result, many are deterred from choosing lower-paying primary care roles.
Additionally, there is a catastrophic, nationwide shortage of Psychiatrists. This deficit creates a massive barrier to entry for mental health services, leaving millions of vulnerable individuals without access to vital care. Without significant policy intervention to address the debt-to-income ratio and the reimbursement disparity, the gap between patient needs and provider availability will only continue to widen.
Which country has no doctor shortages?
While almost every nation struggles with healthcare distribution to some degree, Cuba is widely recognized for having an overabundance of physicians. According to a PubMed Central publication, Cuba has one of the highest doctor-to-patient ratios in the world, heavily subsidizes medical education and famously exports thousands of its doctors overseas for international medical diplomacy.
In Europe, countries like Norway and Austria also boast extremely high physician-to-population ratios, largely avoiding the severe shortages seen in the U.S.
“By combining rigorous STEM education with a clear, accelerated track to medical school, we are reimagining what’s possible in health education and responding to a critical need for more doctors across Florida and beyond,” says Dr. Devin Stephenson, Florida Poly’s President.
Bottom line
The U.S. doctor shortage is a complex crisis driven by an aging population, a federally bottlenecked residency system and a severe geographic maldistribution of medical talent. Recent immigration bans and travel restrictions only exacerbate this issue by blocking the foreign-born doctors who predominantly serve rural and marginalized communities. Fixing this crisis requires not only expanding residency training spots but also protecting the diverse, international workforce that keeps our safety-net clinics running.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do doctors make more money in Canada or the USA?
Doctors generally make significantly more money in the United States than in Canada, largely because the U.S. has a privatized, multipayer healthcare system. In contrast, Canada has a government-funded, single-payer model.
What specialty has the lowest burnout?
Preventive medicine and dermatology are consistently reported as the medical specialties with the lowest rates of physician burnout, primarily due to manageable hours, lack of life-threatening emergencies and high job satisfaction.
Citations
Jordan M. Doctors From Countries Under Travel Ban Now Allowed to Stay in U.S., The New York Times. Published 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/us/trump-travel-ban-doctors-us-immigration.html
Spoehr C. New AAMC Report Shows Continuing Projected Physician Shortage. Association of American Medical Colleges. Published March 21, 2024. https://www.aamc.org/news/press-releases/new-aamc-report-shows-continuing-projected-physician-shortage
Malayala SV, Vasireddy D, Atluri P, Alur RS. Primary Care Shortage in Medically Underserved and Health Provider Shortage Areas: Lessons from Delaware, USA. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health. 2021;12:215013272199401. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2150132721994018
Castelló González M, Pons Vásquez R, Rodriguez Bencomo D, Choonara I. International Medical Collaboration: Lessons from Cuba. Children. 2016;3(4):20. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/children3040020