Healthcare for All: Including Immigrants

Define: Immigrants

Immigrants can be defined as people who travel to foreign countries to take up permanent residence. Immigrants are most beneficial to the countries they settle within, bringing new energy and innovations. Globally, the number of immigrants has reached an estimated number of 272 million (and counting). According to the U.N., Many Immigrant families forgo situations in which they require health care and social services. As a result, there are very few opportunities that help lead a pathway in which immigrants can access healthcare. When it comes to gaining access to healthcare in the eyes of immigrants, many fear the situation in which they seek health care services as it results in deportation.

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The U.S. Health System

The U.S. health system is a publicly and privately funded bundle of systems and programs. The U.S. health system advocates that immigrants become familiar with how the system works. That is, where patients pay monthly fees to ensure they will have full coverage when they go to a doctor, clinic, or hospital.

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What is Happening

The U.N. advocates that immigrants become familiar with how this system works and how it could help them in their means. Immigrants should be familiar with aspects like differences in care quality, prices, payment methods, patient expectations, or patient-physician relationship. Knowing the fundamentals underlying each of these factors will help ensure a smooth and easy process for immigrants gaining access to health care. Unawareness of these critical components could eventually result in the inability to gain ownership of specific health care options. The lack of knowledge of the healthcare system results in much of the foreign population not gain health care services.

In 2009, an estimated 45% of immigrants were classified as undocumented and uninsured within the health care system. The term uninsured refers to persons who have to pay for and do not receive coverage for hospital services by a third party, whether that be Medicare, Medicaid, or a private insurance company. On the other hand, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will ensure that the U.S. born population and documented immigrants receive similar entitlements regarding health care. Many immigrants within the ACA risk losing health care privileges if their employer decides to provide it through the state exchange. When an employer decides to move to a state exchange, many factors go under tight security, resulting in one's deportation.

Under The Patient Protection and ACA, documented immigrants who lived within the U.S. for less than five years will be under the health insurance mandate yet will not acquire Medicaid. Even though medicare limits restrict documented immigrants, they are open to participating in the state health insurance exchanges. The state insurance exchange is an insurance marketplace. The state provides documented immigrants with infrastructure and support in purchasing state-based health care plans.

Immigrant Access to Healthcare

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The Big Problem

In a general sense, most immigrants are on the low end of the spectrum regarding how much health care they use or can afford. One example that shows an obvious indication of the low usage of health care is "The Healthy Immigrant Effect." "The Healthy Immigrant Effect" is where immigrants have to be mostly healthy to travel and establish a permanent residence. Another example that leads to less usage of health care among immigrants is their legal status. They do not want to risk deportation back to their home country.

How Can We Help

Within the general public, those already in possession of health care can use their voice to project how important it is for immigrants to have health care services. Physicians and health care professionals can also direct their careers into helping mend programs that will lead to a clear pathway for immigrants to acquire healthcare access. They can invest in programs that provide essential skills and smooth remedies to ease the stress caused by the complex process of gaining good healthcare services.

Another aspect that can help is for medical workers to gain cultural sensitivity training, which will help ease some healthcare-related fears. It is also essential that any person assisting the immigrant has their language background. This phenomenon is a severe barrier to immigrants trying to access health care services. It will make immigrants feel less out of the loop and cared for in the eyes of health care professionals.