A bipartisan bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday that seeks to waive the $100,000 fee for H-1B visas for foreign healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses seeking to work in the US, reported the US-based daily The New York Times.
The $100,000 H-1B fee had been imposed by the Trump Administration through a Presidential Proclamation in September 2025. The proclamation has since been challenged in several lawsuits filed by nursing unions, Democratic states and the US Chamber of Commerce, arguing that the proclamation was illegal, and risks reducing the quality of services offered by US schools and hospitals.
According to The New York Times, the bill, labelled "H-1Bs for Physicians and the Healthcare Workforce Act", was introduced by four House members, including Republicans Mike Lawler and Maria Elvira Salazar, as well as Democrats Sanford D Bishop Jr and Yvette Clarke, and seeks to staunch a growing shortage of trained doctors and nurses within the US by exempting foreign health workers from the exorbitant H-1B visa fee.
The US is already projected to face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, according to the American Medical Association. The H-1B fee is also expected to impact the US' pool of trained nurses, with about 500,000 nurses working in the country in 2022 being immigrants, out of a total of 3 million registered nurses, reported The New York Times.
The H-1B programme is a temporary work visa programme which seeks to attract highly skilled professionals in sectors like technology, medicine, education, among others, to come and work in the US. The programme is commonly used by foreign workers as a viable pathway to work in the US and eventually obtain residency or citizenship.
The programme, however, has come under repeated attacks by the second Trump administration and its crowd of MAGA acolytes who have repeatedly alleged US employers are using H-1B holders to replace similarly qualified American citizens. There have been at least two attempts to end the programme, including one by MAGA figurehead Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had introduced a bill to phase out the H-1B.
In sharp contrast to the claims of the MAGA crowd, the H-1B programme has become a vital source of trained professionals for sectors grappling with severe shortages of workers, especially education and healthcare.
In recent years, the H-1B programme has been used to hire doctors and nurses for healthcare units grappling with shortages, especially hospitals in the US' vast rural communities which are unable to attract or afford enough American personnel. "This talent is otherwise not available to come to rural parts of the country," said Brian Thomas, CEO of Jefferson Regional Medical Centre to local news outlet, Arkansas Business.
The new $100,000 threatens to cut off this vital pipeline for rural hospitals, many of which are already in dire straits financially to be able to afford the new fee. Following the proclamation, the American Medical Association (AMA), along with 53 other medical societies, urged the Department of Homeland Security to exempt physicians, residents and fellows from the new fee, in the national interest of the country.
Speaking to The New York Times, AMA President Bobby Mukkamala described the situation, stating that, "I live in Flint, Michigan, a very medically underserved place that really depends on international medical graduates. If this doesn’t get fixed, it leaves places like my hometown and other rural communities without enough physicians to take care of that population," adding that, "In many such communities, international medical graduates play a vital role in providing care and ensuring patients can see a doctor when they need one."
