Breit Bart: Urging Congress to Utilize Doctors Who Passed Their Licensing Exam but Were Not Matched to a Residency Program

Just as the coronavirus epidemic went nationwide, 1,200 young American doctors have been put on the sidelines because they were denied a place in the limited number of medical residencies for 2020, said Kevin Lynn, founder of Doctors Without Jobs. 

“More than 6 percent of the graduates of U.S. medical colleges did not get ‘matched‘ into a residency this week in a hospital, which means they will never practice medicine,” said Lynn, “That is a systemic problem,” he said, adding, “we have an ever-increasing need for effective healthcare delivery in this country, and yet we seem to have made it extremely difficult to become a doctor.”

Without a residency for specialized training on their resumé, the fully qualified doctors cannot get doctors’ jobs because they are excluded from employers’ insurance coverage, he said.

Congress should quickly get the doctors into work during the epidemic by extending employers’ insurance coverage to include the many doctors who pass their tests but who have not had a residency, Lynn said. 

Last week, President Donald Trump and Congress changed insurance rules to allow people to use tens of millions of N95 face masks that were designed for non-medical purposes. McClatchy reported March 20:

The purpose of the new legislative provision is to protect manufacturers from liability if U.S. citizens use the masks outside of a hospital environment during a public health crisis, and contract disease.

Under current law, “someone could buy one from Home Depot and say they got coronavirus while walking on the street and wearing a respirator, and the manufacturer will be liable,” said one congressional aide involved in the deliberations.