Doctors don’t want to relocate to rural Iowa

Sen. Joni Ernst's proposal to solve Iowa's doctor shortage, by her "Directing Our Country's Transfer of Residency Slots“ (DOCTORS) Act, to grant foreign doctors citizenship in exchange for practicing in rural Iowa, is objectionable for two reasons. First, because it doesn't address why doctors no longer want to practice here. As highly-trained professionals, why would they want to locate in communities where there is no cultural life, where the cuisine is the choice between a Casey's pizza or a Subway sandwich? Or where their children would have to go to schools that don't offer physics, foreign languages, music, or dramatic arts? Why would they want to locate in a state that's allowed it's lakes, rivers and streams to become intolerably polluted? A place with nothing but corn, soybeans, and those who serve them?

Secondly, her proposal is morally objectionable, because she wants to take doctors from countries who are already facing critical health care shortages — stealing doctors from where they are needed most.

If Ernst really wants to solve Iowa's doctor shortage, she needs to force her Republican colleagues in the Iowa Legislature make Iowa a better place to live — cleaning up our water, restoring our parks, supporting our public schools, letting people, and their doctors, make their own medical decisions.

Jim Walters

Iowa City