More than 25% of phyisicians in the United States are graduates of overseas medical schools and are known as "international medical graduates," or IMGs:
http://www.ama-assn.org/...
In 2006, out of 902,053 physicians, 228,665 IMGs received medical degrees from 127 different countries, accounting for 25.3% of the total physician count.
The US has a shortage of physicians that is expected to get worse, and we depend on IMGs to keep our medical system functioning. India supplies the greatest number of IMGs (21%); 9% are from the Philippines, 6% from Mexico, 5% from Pakistan, 3.7% from Dominican Republican, and 2.7% each from Russia and Grenada.
IMGs often work initially as primary care physicians in exchange for having their postgraduate medical education or residency subsidized by US government programs. Despite importing physicians, the US only has 2.3 per 1,000 residents--less than most other developed nations.
Most IMGs remain in the United States after their training is complete. And why wouldn't they? American physicians are among the highest paid in the world. Unfortunately, we are draining medical professionals from countries that need them and that face their own physician shortages.
American-born physicians typically graduate with more than $100,000 in debt; that, and the scarcity of physicians, may partially account for their higher incomes. In other developed countries, physicians' education is subsidized or even free.
Do the high educational expenses deter American students from choosing a career as a physician? Most who do go on to become physicians tend to enter lucrative specialities, like cardiology or plastic surgery.
One area where we could improve healthcare and reduce costs is in doing more to subsidize medical education in the United States. Of course, we do not do that because it is cheaper to bring a doctor here whose initial medical education was funded by his/her own country.