Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act

The nursing home industry claims they cannot meet safe staffing levels because the lack of available nurses and CNAs. Advocates push for more immigrant nurses to be granted the right to work in the US. Already around 25% of all US nursing home care workers are immigrants. They are far more likely to be retained by employers than US-born coworkers.

The Healthcare Workforce Coalition renewed its advocacy push to increase the number of immigrant nurses entering the US, calling on Congress to pass the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act. The HWRA would authorize an additional 40,000 visas for healthcare providers.

Restricting immigrant healthcare workers creates significant backlogs according to the coalition. The American Health Care Association and nonprofit nursing home association LeadingAge are among the key long-term care organizations in the coalition.

However, MAGA Republicans refuse to allow more EB-3 category visas to healthcare workers seeking to emigrate from key countries such as the Philippines for the rest of the fiscal year.

“The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) has long been supportive of our nation’s immigrants that make up a strong portion of the LTC workforce,” a report reads. “Ensuring an adequate supply of nurses and physicians as we face workforce shortages is critical, and we ask that members of Congress join their colleagues in cosponsoring this bill today.”