Immigrants and Health Care Access in the United States - Essay Example

Immigrants and Health Care Access in the United s The Immigrants and the Health Care Access in the United States There have been serious debates concerning United States health policies on immigrants. The current crisis on health is an example that has been mostly highlighted by critics of the national health policies on immigrants. there have been allegations that the current health policies makes immigrants use American health care services yet they have not paid for and that they even use the health services more than any native American. On the other hand, critics of the current policies argue that such statements are founded on unfounded and unsubstantiated truths and assumptions. However, the facts prove that expenditures on immigrants are much lower compared to the overall citizens (Chavez, 2013). The undocumented immigrants do not have a wide access to the publicly funded health care systems and that they are more reluctant to use services due to confusion and fear over eligibility regulations. The unauthorized immigrants are not allowed access health insurance yet the private medical care services have greatly skyrocketing. the rules that deter immigrants from accessing health care services have been criticized for failing to deter immigrants from coming to the America but instead, places the American communities at the risk of public health care system. According to Wallace, Torres, Sadegh-Nobari and Pourat (2013), immigration has not undermined the American culture, but instead, has been an integral part of it. It is for this reason that the United States is considered as the nation of immigration. The successive waves of immigration into the country has kept the country demographically young and enriched with a variety of cultures. Consequently, there have been an improved productive capacity throughout the country and this has helped shape the influence and position of the United States in the world. Immigration has always given the United States an economic edge in the global economy. Immigrants have brought the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas into the economy of United States. Through immigrants, the demand for goods and service has increased. It is immigrants who have developed new innovative products such as Java computer language, a programming language that have created a lot of employment for millions of Americans. The American immigration laws are very complex laws, and for one to become an American citizen there is a long way to go (Clark, 2008). The immigration policies provide several legal distinctions between different types of immigrants, such as naturalized citizens, undocumented immigrants, and noncitizens. Naturalized American citizens are individuals born in foreign countries but have become citizens of the United States lawfully and can enjoy all the rights enjoyed by American born citizens. The non citizens on their parts involve the individuals born in foreign countries but live in the United States lawfully but have not obtained American citizenship. They include the legal immigrants, refugees, asylums, and refugees. The undocumented immigrants include individuals who enter into the United States without authorization. They also include those who stay in the United States long after they visa expire. According to Clark (2008), the American history cannot be separated from immigration history yet Migration has always been a controversial topic in the United States. For example, three decades ago, Benjamin Franklin was worried that the many German immigrants into the United States could dilute the American culture that was predominantly British. The immigration issues had been in the public domain for as long as 1800s when immigrants from Ireland were scorned as lazy yet they provided labor during construction of transportation networks such as railroads, roads, and canals (Chavez, 2013). At the turn of the 1900s, there was a wave of new immigrants as poles, Russian Jews, and Italians swamped into American hemisphere. Currently, fears continue to be raised concerning the impacts of immigrants from Asia and Latin America (Chavez, 2013). Before 1996, Wallace, Torres, Sadegh-Nobari and Pourat (2013) suggest that legal immigrants were eligible to access public health benefits on similar grounds as the native born Americans. However, the undocumented immigrants were ineligible for any public health benefits. The 1996 welfare reform law and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act restricted the undocumented immigrants from accessing Medicaid, nutritional benefits, CHIP, and other income support. Therefore, the immigrant eligibility to medical access in the United States is very complex and varies with the status of immigration. For more than two decades, Clark (2008) suggests that the state and federal policies have piled onto each other to create barriers that prevent millions men, women, and children immigrants from accessing health insurance coverage within the United States. Despite the several benefits that the immigrants have brought to the American culture, society, and economy, the policies concerning access to health care have not been favoring them. although the Affordable care Act has significantly reduced the number of the united states residents with no health insurance and has ensured that they can have an appropriate access to health services, the act or the policies have greatly excluded an important group, over 11 million the immigrants living within the borders of united states (Clark, 2008). The Affordable care Act majorly aims to provide all Americans with affordable and quality health care so that health care spending can reduce. The act improves the access to health coverage through the expansion for eligibility for all the Medicaid programs. The program also provides significant subsidies for the individuals under low income brackets so that they can easily buy the required health insurance packages. In the process, the law creates an incentive for the employers offering health insurance (Wallace, Torres, Sadegh-Nobari and Pourat, 2013). Despite all these efforts to cover the entire United States’ population, the Affordable Care Act still excludes the undocumented immigrants from explicitly getting access to all its provisions. Immigrants having the ‘deferred action’ status and those having provisional immigrant status are also excluded from getting all the benefits of the Affordable care Act. Following the elections in 2012, immigration reforms has been one of the federal government’s main agendas. There is need for an awareness concerning the restrictions imposed on immigrants in regards to their right to access health care services in the country. However, historically, those individuals who have always been driven by the need for equality and engaged bipartisan immigration reforms failed thereby leaving health coverage gaps. The 2010, Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act did not adequately addressed the health coverage needs for the immigrants in the United States. The millions of young immigrants in America and eligible to lawfully reside in the United States were denied access to some forms of health care coverage under the Patient Protection act of 2010. It is for these past failings, therefore, that the health interests and others social interests of immigrants must be reviewed (Chavez, 2013). Health insurance has continued to increase access to affordable health care. The system of safety-net healthcare providers includes non-profit community centers, public hospitals and clinics, and charity hospitals. Despite the limited resources that these facilities have, they continue to serve Americans including the uninsured patients through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In most cases, these facilities have waiting time that may prevent patients from accessing health care in time. In overall, immigrants in the United States have the poorest access to medical care when compared to other Americans such as native born Americans. According to Wallace, Torres, Sadegh-Nobari and Pourat (2013), 47 percent of immigrants continue to remain ineligible for any American public insurance coverage or even private insurance being offered in the country’s health insurance exchanges. For example, the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a policy that allows certain individuals, more so children who arrived in the United States before the age of 16 to continue staying in the country for a specific period of times. Such individuals are considered legal immigrants and remain ineligible to for all the health insurance under the CHIP, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act subsidies and other health exchanges. According to Clark (2008), the limited access to health care by immigrants is normally linked to the insurance coverage and limited financial access. All these challenges are faced by all Americans whether native born or an immigrant. For the immigrants, they have more problems. First, language barrier is a major issue that according to Clark (2008), affects the possibility of an immigrant accessing medical care. Wallace, Torres, Sadegh-Nobari and Pourat (2013) illustrate that when a patient thinks that he or she will have problems explaining her or his medical problems to the physician, they become less willing to seek medical care. To prevent the undocumented immigrants from accessing the health care, there are several tactics used by hospitals and private insurance companies. The first tactic used is the ‘transfer tactic’ where, immigrant patients who have no documentation are transferred to their countries of origin. For example, in San Diego California, one of the hospitals transferred a Mexican patient who had suffered from accident to Tijuana, Mexico (Clark, 2008). The hospitals normally argue that the transfers are voluntary. Other tactics used to prevent immigrants from accessing health care is through questioning their immigration status and country of origin. The message that is normally sent when such questions are asked is that undocumented immigrants are not welcomed. Other hospitals use other less extreme tactics to prevent immigrants from seeking health care. For example, in Texas, there is a hospital that makes its security personnel wear uniforms that resemble those worn by border patrols (Chavez, 2013). The coverage restrictions on health care access and provisions have fostered harmful disparities as Americans strive to access health care services, especially the sexual reproductive health care services (Clark, 2008). The inequitable access to health care has jeopardized the well-being and health of the immigrant people, especially women, their families and the communities into the next generation. Consequently, the public health system of the nation as a whole has been compromised. In conclusion, the American health care policies have not been favorable on the immigrants and many of immigrants have suffered severe harm due to the confusion concerning their eligibility to public health care system. The Affordable Care Act has not been friendly to immigrants as most of undocumented immigrants have been left out of public health systems. The available private health care systems have also been too expensive for most immigrants. References Chavez, L. (2013). The Latino threat: Constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation. Palo Alto, CL: Stanford University Press. Clark, B. R. (2008). The immigrant health care narrative and what it tells us about the US health care system. Annals of Health Law, 17(2), 229-277. Wallace, S. P., Torres, J., Sadegh-Nobari, T., & Pourat, N. (2013). Undocumented and Uninsured: Barriers to Affordable Care for Immigrant Population. Retrieved from: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2013/Aug/1699_Wallace_undocumented_uninsured_barriers_immigrants_v2.pdf Read More