Every March, medical students all over the nation find out if and where they matched to residency. This can be a joyous time for many, but it may also be a disastrous time for the students who do not gain a residency position.

A residency is required for all medical graduates who seek to earn a medical license and practice in the United States. In 2018, 2773 American medical students were left without a residency offer. This is particularly alarming among Osteopathic students who account for 860 of those students, at a rate 19.7% of all DO graduates.

Students enter medical school seeking to help their communities and to provide highly skilled and compassionate care. In undertaking this role, many are undertaking a cost of attendance of $50,000-$80,000 per year. Much of this figure is funded via Federal Loans from the Department of Education. Without a residency, the DOE and taxpayers will have lost their investment despite the students being stellar applicants who successfully trained and passed the rigorous requirements of LCME and COCA medical schools. 

This issue is not a matter of funding; it is a due to misallocation of the funds. There were 24946 American medical students vying for 33167 residency positions. Yet, 2773 were left without a position.

Despite the great excess of residency positions, many residency programs use the $100,000 to $150,000 that they receive from medicare per resident per year, to recruit students from offshore schools to whom they have a connection. Many residency programs reserve their spots solely for students from particular Caribbean school due to backdoor deals and kickbacks for "clerkship rotations". Many other hospitals reserve their spots for already-trained foreign physicians to use as low wage labor for profit of the hospital.

No other nation allows for such practice. In the Canadian CaRMS, only certain programs are designated to IMGs and majority of residency are reserved for Canadian graduates. The UK does not allow American citizens any residency positions until all domestic students are placed. Likewise for Australia, the EU, and Asia. Yet, graduates of those nations displace American students that were invested in by their states and federal governments. 

This petition seeks to adopt a system similar to Canada, UK, or the EU to stop the misuse of medicare funds to allow further backdoor deals with offshore for-profit schools at a cost to American medical students.