Undocumented Immigrants: A Case Study

The existence of Affordable Care Act have been a promising act for millions of citizens, especially the effort to end homeless, to put low-income on a better care at a reasonable price, and the access to healthcare through a variety of healthcare insurance choices. Its’ purpose is to reform healthcare, creating new policies, and establishing a better accessibility to physician and hospital with a cost that fit within both side budgets. The Act guarantees subsidies to all patient with an offering to better practitioner and treatment options to create a strong incentives to improve the quality of cares and services (Meek, 2012, pg. 15). Nevertheless, The Affordable Care Act face many barriers such as

The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2)

For many illegal aliens, seeking healthcare is undermined by the fear of being deported. Many would rather suffer through an illness or injury than seek care for fear that they will be sent back to Mexico. Unfortunately, but the time that they finally get to a point where it is absolutely necessary to obtain care, the cost of that care has become a much larger figure than it would have been had they obtained care sooner.

America needs comprehensive health care reform, and immigrants should be a part of the movement.  But many American citizens might ask that pertinent question: why should they cover the expense for illegal immigrants to access health care?  The answer is plain and simple: until congress passes immigration laws that work, people are going to migrant here illegally.  And to deny migrants access to affordable health care, Americans are not only denying them their human right, they are also putting individual and national health at risk.  I believe that this country – which has the medical advancements and the facilities to ensure the health of its citizens – should reach out to its non-citizens, legal and illegal, until it

Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in the United States. For those who were born in the states, they are primed to see that most illegal immigrants are not welcome. Yet these immigrants see the United States as a land of opportunity. According to independent research by the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, there were 8.4 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the U.S.; representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force (Goodman, 2014). We will examine the different sociological perspectives to understand this topic.

A key goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to decrease the number of uninsured individuals, many of whom are in low-income families and are minorities (Kaiser Family Foundation 2016). Under the ACA, immigrants who are in the U.S. legally are eligible for coverage through the health insurance marketplace but undocumented immigrants are not (HealthCare.gov) even when using their own money to purchase. There are estimates of 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in the country as of 2014 (Krogstad, Passel, & Cohn 2016). It is estimated that California was home to more than two million undocumented immigrants in 2013. In 2016, California passed SB 10, a bill that would require the California Health Benefit Exchange, which facilitates the enrollment of qualified individuals into health plans, to apply to the United States Department of Health and Human Services for a waiver to allow individuals who are not eligible to obtain health coverage through the Exchange because of their immigration status to obtain coverage from the Exchange (California Legislative Information). This paper will explore California’s SB 10 legislation, its purpose, and how it will seek to serve its undocumented immigrant population and their health needs.

Financial barriers to access health care are common in a low-income family when they are uninsured or underinsured. Many uninsured and undocumented immigrant received federal and state health care coverage. Latinos and African American are the ethnicities that are disproportionally get affected. Limited access to a doctor when they are sick, taking non-prescribed medication and holding off recommended treatment is only some of the problems they encountered (Carrillo et al., 2011).

With the economy of the United States in shambles, illegal immigration and the effects it has on health care can no longer be ignored. America has a whole needs to be concerned and well informed of the issues rather than collecting information piecemeal by way of media or other biased groups. If illegal immigration stays its present course the American tax-payer will continue to fund the well being of individuals who have broken federal rules and regulations and are being supported by law abiding citizens. This argument is not about individual rights to live and prosper. It is not about race or discrimination of any sort. It is only about the effects on health care that I am addressing.

In an article that looked at the immigrant healthcare needs of the United States, Dudas (2012) found that

There are several arguments spotlighting the effect of illegal immigration on current rising health care cost. To this point, illegal immigrants and elected representatives across the country are unable to deny the increased costs placed upon the backs of American taxpayers due to the rise in health care and health care insurance cost. A bill initiated in Indiana will demand local hospitals create a report regarding the costs associated with treating illegal immigrants. Additionally, on a countrywide level, there is an ongoing endeavor to push illegal immigrant children toward federally funded Children’s Health Insurance by the governing body which in turn will effectively raise the current tax rates for all Americans. As an alternative, some policymakers are trying to use creative language in order to guarantee that illegal immigrants were blocked from obtaining health care services (Maxwell & Adolfo 324). For undocumented immigrants within the United States, acquiring health related services or care systematically increases the cost for American taxpayers across the board. Health care providers, Health care insurance companies and both the state and federally supplemented health care funds ( i.e. Medicaid) are forced to close the gap on the negative revenue return by increasing cost of services due to the excessive use and write off of public health care funds and services by illegal immigrants.

Hispanics are one of the largest groups in the United States that are uninsured. Additionally, the Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S. The Hispanic population is estimated to increase over the next 25 years to 32 million out of a total of 72 million of the US population (Brice, 2000). The U.S. health care system is facing one of its most notable societal issues in years in reference to its ability to provide access to medical care for the millions of Americans who do not have health care, for whatever cause. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, for the purpose of reducing inequalities in insurance coverage and to provide access to health care for all. A vital goal of the

In the area of healthcare, the influx of illegals has proven to put a huge burden in all areas of the system. In California over the last decade many hospitals and emergency rooms have closed due to the illegals being treated there and not being able to pay the bills from the hospital. Right now, California out of the 50 states is last in the number of emergency rooms per million people (Jones, 2012, #6.). The insurance premiums for citizens keep increasing because when the illegal’s go to an emergency room

Immigration is one of the most important issues that the United States faces and thus has misperceptions such as how immigration affects the workforce and economy, the size and composition of the immigrants, and the budgetary impact of unauthorized immigration. As of 2012, more than 40 million immigrants lived in the United States, the population accounting for about 13 percent of the total population of U.S. The same year showed that unauthorized immigrants were 11.7 million, accounting for 3.7 percent of all the people of the U.S and roughly 5.2 percent of the labor force. Most of the illegal immigrants are Latino who is primarily from Central America and Mexico. 46 percent of all the immigrants in the

Although the number of illegal immigrants is substantially growing on a daily basis, the national health care policies seem to fail in addressing their medical needs. This, however, is becoming a growing challenge because of the conflicts between medical ethics and immigration laws. Despite the alluded hope for this patients group within the immigration reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) fails to alleviate the burden of their unmet health care needs. Advocates of their rights for health coverage argue that medical ethics and the United States moral obligations necessitate expanding coverage to all population residing within the borders of the country. Conversely, opponents deny their health coverage because their illegal status disqualify them from all public benefits. This paper goes beyond these opposing assumptions and instead, proposes a strategic plan to raise and combine resources necessary to establish a health care center for the uninsured, underinsured, and illegal immigrants in Northern California. The paper covers the establishment of this center with special focus on strategic funding, funding constraints, related state and national regulations, health policy, resources allocation, and managerial and leadership.

The HEAL for Immigrant Women and Families Act of 2017 is seeking to expand access to health care services from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program recipients (H.R. 2788, 2017). The act is intended to break down barriers for women and their families by expanding the definition of “lawfully present” instituted under the Social Security Act in the Medicaid-Section 1903. By amending subparagraph (A) to expand the definition of “lawfully present” to include “such an individual who is granted deferred action or other federally authorized presence other than as a nonimmigrant” (H.R. 2788, 2017). Currently, from the 6.5 million lawful non-citizen women in the US from the ages of 15 to 44, 36% are uninsured in comparison to the 11% uninsured naturalized citizens and 10% the US-born citizen women in the same category (Guttmacher Institute , 2016). When taking a closer look at these women, researchers found that 51% live below the federal poverty level (FDL) and are often ineligible for health care programs such as Medicaid (Guttmacher Institute , 2016). By expanding the definition in the subparagraph (A) of the Social Security Act of 1903, it would expand eligibility for all federally funded health care programs through the ACA and cause the five-year gap to be