A comment on the closing of two Maine tax-paying businesses run by “immigrants:”

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Family Practitioners (AAFP) have predicted a severe shortage of primary care providers over the next decade, as the demand is outstripping supply rapidly. In a position paper published last April, the AMA suggested addressing the shortage of physicians in underserved areas by international medical graduates (IMGs).

The position paper states that one out of every five adequately served nonmetropolitan counties would become underserved if all IMGs currently in primary care practice were to be removed. Last October, the AMA wrote to several senators and representatives asking for their attention toward the hardships faced by not only the physicians and their families in getting green cards, but also the communities that depend upon them for their medical care. The AMA asked for exemptions from immigration caps for these physicians, upon completion of their service requirement.”

If it’s “good enough” for the AMA and the AAFP to support international medical graduates to stay and work instead of returning home to elevate their own country’s’ health care, why isn’t it good enough for those hard-working immigrants of the Mexican Restaurant (Hancock) and The Twin Buffets (Brewer) to stay, work and pay taxes? (Bet you didn’t know these folks, just as you and I, pay taxes and Social Security- neither of which they will ever recover.)

Or is it one way for the wealthy and another for the “poor?”

Bert Marian

Addison