by Luz Garcia

If you walk into the local pharmacy in downtown Gonzales and turn to the right, you’ll see an examination room with an ultrasound machine. It represents more than just a cheaper alternative to an ultrasound at a hospital or other facilities in the Salinas Valley. It’s an example of the health care system I think we should build—one that meets our patients’ and their families’ medical needs first, treating them at the most accessible times and most convenient places for them, and at an affordable cost, regardless of whether they are insured, uninsured, or underinsured. …

by Catherine Ceniza Choy

In California hospitals today, immigration has diversified not only the state’s patient population, but the demographics of its caregivers as well.

  It is now commonplace to be cared for at the bedside by a Filipino immigrant nurse. According to the 2016 Survey of California Registered Nurses, Filipinos make up the second largest group of the state’s active RN workforce, nearly 18 percent. Among younger nurses, they’re even more predominant, with Filipino nurses representing nearly a quarter of nurses between ages 35 to 44 years and more than one-fifth of RNs 45 to 54 years old. …

by Sandy Chen Stokes

by Joe Mathews

Immigrants are already essential to healthcare in California. But they will become even more important in the future.
  Today’s health system is a giant mess—timely care is hard to find, drugs and treatments are ruinously expensive, and lethal mistakes are all too common. But things would be even worse without the immigrants who serve as doctors, nurses, and aides, often in places and in roles for which our clinics and hospitals can find no one else. In America, one in six medical professionals, and nearly one-third of physicians, are foreign-born; the numbers are slightly higher in California.
  While many of these immigrant providers represent a stopgap for now, they also hold the promise of a brighter future. Immigrants bring not just their labor but also ideas that can help us imagine how to change our health system. …

by Brenda Green

I practice family medicine at a clinic just a few miles away from the Tijuana medical school where I earned my medical degree. But the journey from medical school to practice was long—not least because the U.S.-Mexico border stood in the way.
  My experience—I was trained in Mexico and now practice over the border in Chula Vista, in San Diego County—has taught me about just how vital immigrants are to California’s health care. It’s also shown me that immigrant physicians, like me, can play special roles in medical training and provide services and new perspectives in places where doctors are needed most. …