Health care for undocumented immigrants - Research Paper Example

In some free markets, even the health care is left to market participations and in some cases it is left to the central government. However almost all countries follow the World Health Organization guidelines, which is a health care system designed with a system that is impeccable and provides flawless information on which other countries can base their policies and decisions on. (Hunnicutt, 2010) Since economy is one of the factors that determine the amount spent on healthcare, it is only plausible that it affects the economy as well.

It contributes to the GDP of the country and most developed nations seem to spend a great deal more than developing countries such as US, Switzerland and France. Since it is related to the well-being of people, it is an important issue, and especially in undocumented immigrants who migrate into a country and have the same needs but may not be getting healthcare; especially the undocumented ones. Small pox as a disease was eradicated by World Health Organization in 1980 and this is the power of health care systems if they were only provided to undocumented immigrants. . stay back even after their visa expires and they need to return.

37 million of these undocumented immigrants were living in the US in 2006. They came from Mexico, Philippines, Brazil, Ecuador and other places from all over the world. They now form an essential part of the country, around 13%. Some immigrants come legally and even though many of them are undocumented, there can be no estimation of how many they are. Some studies show that the percentage of illegal immigrants has decreased over the years. They usually lack health benefits such as public health insurance.

The reason why many of these people migrate is because US demands workers which they see as an opportunity. And they accept lower wages and take service jobs that do not pay health insurance. They also face barriers in receiving any health benefits. In 1996, most of them were not eligible for Medicaid till they completed residency of five years in the US. Then they became rightful owners of the services provided by Medicaid. However, for undocumented immigrants this offer doesn’t stand, no matter how many years they have stayed in the US.

(Chavez, 1992) Therefore about 60% of immigrants will not have any options for receiving health benefits. They only rely on small facilities like clinics but they seem to be limited both in terms of expertise and their amounts in rural as well urban areas as compared to the number of immigrants that are invading the country. They are becoming unable to provide health care and therefore these citizens receive less primary care than the citizens. However, they add a great deal to the countries overall costs.

(Fernandez, Robinson, & Division., 1994) Objective In United States, undocumented