Trump’s announcement that he is ending DACA will have far reaching corrosive effects on society. Here is just one:
I have a small neurology practice in my state’s capital city. My specialty is in great demand. The wait time to see a neurologist is typically 2-3 months. Many cities, not to mention smaller towns, do not have any neurologists. This means that people with seizures, dementia, and multiple sclerosis either don’t get appropriate care or must travel hours to see a neurologist. Many of them cannot afford the travel expense.
The most urgent problem requiring a neurologist is acute stroke; a devastating condition that is the most common cause of disability in the US. There are new, effective treatments for this condition but ER doctors and non-neurologists are not trained to use them.
Here is how does DACA affects the supply of neurologists:
My most valuable employee is a Dreamer who was brought across the border when he was 3 years old. He is the best employee I have had in my 20 years of practice. I may very well lose him to Trump and the GOP’s obscene value system and mismanagement of the immigration problem. If that happens I will probably close my practice. I, and almost all my neurology colleagues in private practice, are so close to retirement that the hassle of finding new, quality employees is a powerful reason to close practice. You might criticize us for being selfish but human nature is what it is.
The horrible effect of Republican policies on health care are not limited to small practices. Every hospital I have been in almost certainly has scores of Dreamers who are nurses, radiology techs, IT professionals, and doctors.
Hundreds of hospitals will not survive the one-two punch of Republican sabotage of the ACA and repeal of DACA.
Like all of Trump and the GOPs appalling ideas and actions, this latest decision will have far reaching consequences that few if any Republicans have considered. But, thinking and reflection are not what Conservatives do, they just destroy.