With the 2024 Election just two months away, Americans for Prosperity's Arizona chapter is gearing up for January 2025. Director Stephen Shadegg sat down with Cactus Politics to discuss their plans for the new legislative cycle, telling us that AFP-AZ has two issues they will focus on, which are the expansion of housing in the Grand Canyon State and shortening the residency period for foreign doctors trained outside the United States, increasing the number of practitioners nationwide.
Of the two, Shadegg said housing was "our number one issue." While their lobbying efforts saw "two relatively strong housing reforms" passed in 2024, they were focused on multi-housing.
"Ideally, we would like to focus on single-family households and getting that fixed because if you look around Arizona, there is land as far as you can see. I would not say that everybody's American Dream is to own a single-family home, but I think [for] the majority of Americans, their American Dream is to own a home, and there is no reason why in Arizona you should not be able to do that," detailed Shadegg.
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The AFP-AZ Director suggested that obstacles such as regulations for zoning and construction "is going to come to the federal side," which is particularly true for Arizona, as the federal government owns 38.6% of available acreage in the state.
The conversation shifted to a piece of legislation AFP-AZ has tried to pass for four legislative cycles: shortening the residency of qualified doctors trained outside the United States to be equivalent to the residencies of American-trained doctors.
"It is identical to what they did in Florida," said Shadegg, "Florida actually took it from us. It basically allows for any doctor who is trained outside of the United States, recognized by the seven other countries that Canada recognizes, for us to say, 'Hey, these doctors that were trained in these seven countries which Canada recognizes, and we recognize Canada, their residency should not be any longer than if you were trained in the United States."
Shadegg dismissed the idea that the extended residencies of foreign doctors, often three additional years, are a safety measure, saying they are "a good old boys club. The doctors do not want competition."
Moreover, safeguards would already be in place under this proposed legislation, as "this is the United States of America. You still have to get a license in the United States, in Arizona. It is not like we are going to walk up to the corner at Starbucks where the barista is like, 'You know, I want to be an ER doctor,' and they go, 'Sure, here is a scalpel."
"All we are trying to do is fix the shortage of doctors," Shadegg continued, "That is the real goal, right? And a lot of folks have said that by doing that, you are going to lower the quality again."
"Maybe I have got economics wrong, but when you are a top performer, and you are at the very top, and you get to sit there forever, and nobody else is driving competition, you look around, and you do not see any competition coming at you, you get content. But if you are a good doctor and you are at the top of your game, you always want to be the best, and you are always looking for that guy; quite frankly, lots of times, you welcome it because you want somebody to push you to a new level. And so that is where I think free market and competition, quite frankly, will make the medical industry better," Shadegg concluded.
