The J1 story

Found this article about the spectacular success of the J1 waiver in the Washington Post. Shahbash guys!! And in true Gujju tradition they are making sure their precedent is being followed in earnest.

The DHHS( same guys who write the HIV guidelines) estimate whether an area is medically under served based on 4 main parameters- percentage of over 65 population, percentage living below poverty level, IMR and doctors per 1000 population. Based on this a score called the IMU score is awarded to the place from 0 ( most under served) to 100 ( least under served).

Now there's two pieces of stats I wish to bring to notice:

1) The percentage of people who live in a MUA according to state.Note, as you will click on the link, MA and Shah's state MD have a mere 5 and 6% people living in MUAs. DC is surprisingly ranked no 48 in this ranking!! And Mississippi, ranked last, still has less than 30% people living in MUAs. I guess in either case the poverty and DPR values skew the score. (For a family of three the poverty threshold is around $ 20,000 pa. ) And this statistic will be affected by size of state and population density too.

I would argue that the above 65 does not demographically fit well with the rest of criteria-but still Vermont ranks no 2!!

2) Search for MUAs in MA here.
See the number of places in Suffolk, Middlesex and Plymouth counties. I am attaching a county map of MA for reference so that you can get an idea of physical distances.Queire decir : You can be within an hour's driving distance from Boston and still serve in a MUA. I shall be PC and not make any comments. Those wise enough can make their own conclusions.