The impact of illegal immigrants on health care economics in the United States is a high cost to the government due to the large amount of illegal immigrants on Medicaid. Providing health care to illegal immigrants is an important component that negatively affects the cost of health care insurance for the citizens of the United States. This is an issue that the United States government must address. The affect of illegal immigrants on health care economics in the United States and the impact they have on our country goes in many directions and it affects many areas of the economy.
The controversy of whether illegal aliens should be allowed to become legal and live in the United States, receive free government health insurance and other state benefits, and how the new health reform should affect these illegal immigrants is the number one health care problem today. The research article on www. usillegalaliens. com looked at the cost of health care expenditures for immigrants compared to United States born citizens. The assumption at the beginning of the article is that immigrants are putting an increased burden on the health care system in the United States.
The data was collected on a national basis using a computer-based survey. Following the analysis of the data collected in the research study, it was concluded that the citizens make up a larger amount of the health care expenditures compared to the immigrants. It was concluded that the total of the United States health care expenditures were made up of 7. 9% for immigrants and 90% for the citizens. One factor that plays into the lower expenditures for immigrants is that the immigrants have decreased access to health care insurance, which also decreases the use of health care services.
Immigrants are required to wait five years after entering the country before receiving government health insurance; however they can receive emergency care if needed. Since the majority of the citizens have some form of health insurance, it enables them to access the health care system more readily. In comparing citizens with immigrants, it is a fact that the health care expenditures are not heavily burdened by immigrant use. The article on www. usillegalaliens. com also talks about how much public assistance illegal immigrants should receive.
Even with them not being able to receive help with public assistance, they can still receive emergency medical care at hospitals. The current amount of people that are uninsured in United States looks like the following: adults who are uninsured, United States citizens 14%, legal immigrants 25%, illegal immigrants 59%, children U. S. citizens 9%, citizens whose parents are legal immigrants 13%, foreign-born children of legal immigrants 25%, citizens with illegal immigrant parents 25%, and foreign born children with illegal immigrant parents 53% (Wolf, 2008).
It is apparent that there are many illegal immigrants that wait to get treated until they are forced to go to the hospital because of the fear of being deported back to their original country. Some of the illegal immigrants that seek medical care will go to free clinics or community medical centers. This has become a political problem all over the United States because it costs for health care and education than the immigrants pay in taxes (Wolf, 2008).
The effect of illegal immigrants on health care in the United States is an issue that is being felt in numerous areas. The areas that are feeling this impact most are crime, education and health care. Sometimes, illegal immigrants bring people with them that need schooling; they are a less fortunate group of people that are unskilled, causing a great deal of problems which they inherited, that also need to be addressed. The article reports that nearly “10 billion illegal immigrants that have not finished school have entered the United States” (January, 2011).
While America’s problems are practically in the same areas, we find it hard to support our own citizens and meet the needs of other natives that come here. When seeing how much Mexicans are being paid trying to support their families, it is not hard to see why they are making such an enormous escape to the United States. We know everyone wants to come to the U. S. to live the American dream. It has been reported that the Mexican wages are $5. 00 a day. When they come here, they make at least that much for each hour worked.
Research helps thers understand why Mexicans keep their money in America’s banks. It is reported that Mexican’s money is devalued in Mexico. Reports state that the “illegal immigrants send $6 to $8 billion dollars home to their families in Mexico” (January, 2011). Immigrants and their children that are born in the U. S. make up more than half of the uninsured medical health population which has increased in the last two decades. They cannot afford medical care in America, but hospitals and doctors have pledged to take care of these illegals, and by law, they are forced to.
Reasons such as this have caused hospitals to close and some have gone bankrupt “because of federally-mandated programs requiring free emergency room services to illegal aliens” (January, 2011). Illegal aliens also come to America to have their babies. This makes their children legal Americans, which qualifies them for the same rights and services as anyone else that live in America. In the state of Colorado, it was reported that they received immigrants that had babies and millions of dollars were paid to hospitals and physicians for delivering their children in the United States.
The cost was broken down between how much they were paid for the births and for each child that was born here illegally. Medicaid paid for those services with emergency funds for those hospital and physicians. Right away the babies became citizens of the United States, and were legally entitled to those emergency funds and services. As mentioned before, the impact of illegal immigrants has affected many areas in our economy. Immigrants are entitled to health care in the U. S. , but it is our issue to take care of them. Everyone has an integral part to play; no one is excluded.
Some illegal aliens have formed gangs whose crimes place a burden on America that cannot be ignored. America has set aside billions of dollars to enforce programs for handling these unsettling mishaps. Some employers are trying to make it possible for part-time and even permanent work for immigrants, as in other countries. These are additional burdens that America is trying to cope with. The cost is very high and we have a long way to go. Ultimately, these extraneous factors produce results that negatively stimulate the U. S. healthcare system.
The possible solutions that will help keep illegal immigrants from running up health care bills are: adopting measures that will collect information on illegal immigrants or undocumented aliens, instead of sending aid to foreign countries to help them with their medical needs, we should put that money towards the providers treating the illegal immigrants, U. S. medical students could provide community service to the illegal immigrants as a means of lowering the cost the government money for health care (Glueck, & Cihak, 2005).
By collecting information on illegal immigrants, medical costs can be cut, and they would have to enroll to become U. S. Citizens. This would make them have to pay some of the taxes which go towards the health care in the United States. The immigrants would have to check in periodically to make ensure that they were following established procedures and processes. Instead of sending money to other countries for their medical care, our country should allocate those funds to the providers of these services for illegal immigrants. The government needs to eliminate the flow of illegal immigrants that have come into this country, and redirect them back to their country of origin.
Medical students who volunteer their time to treat illegal immigrants, would not charge the government for unpaid medical bills that arise from illegal immigrants seeking medical care. This would give medical students the experience of working with new medical knowledge, and give illegal immigrants the care that they need. In the end, this will benefit everyone involved. Overall, the concern with illegal immigrants receiving health care within the United States does play an important role in the high cost of health care for the government and its citizens.
By researching illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid, health care insurance results have shown that there are many families and individuals on government assistance programs. The percentage of illegal immigrants having health care and the percentage of citizens receiving health care is close in comparison. So ultimately, illegal immigrants are not only negatively affecting the U. S. healthcare system, they are also impacting our overall economy and standard of living.