If you’re an undocumented immigrant living in America, getting healthcare can be like winning the lottery— after playing for years, you can’t be surprised when you don’t win, but you keep playing, hoping to hit it big.
Like lottery, health insurance for undocumented immigrants is the luck of the draw, depending on what state you live in.
Because there is only limited federal guidance in United States addressing healthcare for immigrants, the issue is dealt with at the state level. Therefore fifty states equal fifty different approaches.
While some states like New York and California are generous in their contributions, others like Georgia only provide care when a patient is on the verge of dying. As put by Dr. Laurence Lewin, a kidney transplant specialist in Orange County:
It’s like rescuing a person from drowning, giving someone a good meal, and then pushing them over the side.
While some states believe that providing health services to undocumented immigrants is unfair to citizens of the U.S. and costly to tax payers, the fact is that allowing immigrants to get extremely sick before providing care can often be more expensive. As noted in a Los Angeles Times article, repeatedly rescuing patients not only threatens their long term health, but it costs more than routine care.
Regardless of a persons legal status, it is inhumane to deny someone access to health care, waiting until their near death to help them. With the presidential election just days away, one can only hope that our next president addresses the gaps in immigrant health care in the United States, but more importantly, addresses the importance of health as a human right and work towards universal coverage.
Contributed by Angela Donadic