Sick without coverage: health care and the undocumented

By Michelle Chan
Staff Writer

In his latest presidential address to Congress, President Barack Obama declared that his proposals for a public option will not cover the 9.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., sparking a comment from Representative Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who called the president a liar. However, U-Md. students are divided as to whether undocumented immigrants should be included in healthcare reform policies.

Some students believe that denying health coverage for undocumented undermines their human rights.

“The crux of illegal immigration is that just because they’re illegal doesn’t mean they don’t deserve human rights,” said Wanika Fisher, vice president of advocacy for the Latino Student Union.

“Undocumented immigrants should have just as much rights as documented immigrants. They need healthcare as well,” said Jennifer Sanchez, a junior community health major.

Estefi Medina, president of the Latino Honors Society, a finance and operations management junior said that while many of her friends and fellow Latinos believe that healthcare rights should be extended to “all Americans” under healthcare reform, she struggled with the idea.

“Me personally, coming to the United States legally as a U.S. resident … and knowing that [there] are still barriers for U.S. residents in this country, it seems unfair [that] people who didn’t come here in all the correct manners are getting some of the same treatments as I am, while I still have to struggle for some jobs today.”

For Medina, the struggle for employment and healthcare is especially pertinent.

“It’s really hard to apply for a job, which often times equals healthcare. I find it a little unfair for illegal immigrants to be automatically covered,” Medina said.

Other students are concerned that extending coverage to undocumented immigrants may create financial burdens.

“Why should [undocumented immigrants] benefit when there are millions of people here who have paid their dues and have been lawful citizens and haven’t gotten the proper benefits?” said Ashwani Jain, junior business and government and politics major and coordinator for Students for Barack Obama.

Others believe that undocumented immigrants should be covered because, in the long run, they will become U.S. citizens.

Mario Neyra, a junior economics major and brother Latino fraternity, Gamma Phi Sigma, said, “we should work on giving coverage to everyone, not just citizens, but also the immigrants who will eventually become citizens.”

“I think that’s a really tough issue because we all know everybody’s struggling to keep the cost of the plan down,” said Katie Munch, a graduate student. “I really strongly believe that if [undocumented immigrants] are living here, their children should receive healthcare as well.”

While Latinos account for less than 15 percent of those living in America, they are over 30 percent of the uninsured. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, the uninsured are 9 to 10 times likelier to forgo medical care due to high costs. One in three Latinos attribute this to the financial cost of an insurance plan, according to the Hispanic Pew Center.

“I think just from knowing people who are undocumented … they’re just extra cautious because if they do become sick, they will have to pay huge medical fees. It just heightens their already practices they have of being extra cautious about getting sick, just staying away from medical problems,” Medina said.

“It’s hard because we can’t control it as human beings. We can wash our hands, do the basics but if we do get sick, the natural step is to go to the doctor,” Medina said.

Yet, high expenditures are not the only reason why undocumented immigrants forgo a visit to the doctor; some fear deportation.

In one case, Edgar Casterno, an infant, was sick in 2007 in Oklahoma when his parents realized that he would need emergency medical care. They chose not to take him to a hospital because they were undocumented residents and feared deportation. The boy died for a lack of medical care.

In another case, controversy emerged when the Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, Fl. deported the body of Luis Alberto Ramirez, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant, after Ramirez received medical assistance in the center.

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Posted by admin on Oct 19 2009. Filed under National News, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry