Is there an unavoidable relationship between immigration policy and healthcare? Politicians have probably become used to stating that health care is “the Number One challenge, the Number One domestic issue” (“Senator,” 2006). Senator Richard Burr from North Carolina added that health care would consume one hundred percent of the U. S. budget by the year 2020 if other sources of financing the health of the nation are not discovered and/or organized immediately. He did not say that the health care system would cost that much to the U. S. without the illegal immigrants, however.
Illegal immigrants are not about to go away in abundance any time soon. Rather, as the Senator indicated, the United States would like the 6 illegal immigrants to somehow turn legal (“Senator”). Given the benefits that illegal immigrants add to the U. S. economy, this is not surprising. Moreover, the comments made by the Senator entail that it is possible to ignore the negative effects of illegal immigration on health care, and to focus instead on making health care available to all, including the poor people from South America who came to the U.S. hoping for better living conditions.
Perhaps, therefore, the United States should be prepared to accept the illegal immigrants permanently into their lives. It is magnanimous on the part of the world’s leading nation to search for a way to meet its health care costs despite illegal immigration. Still, it remains clear that the United States is finding it harder to support its health care system because there are too many people that require their health care needs to be met at present.
The onrush of legal immigrants during the 1990s has exacerbated the problem: the supply of health care is insufficient at reasonable prices also for legal immigrants in the U. S. (Camarota)! The supply of health care is less than the demand at the prices that the demanders mostly quote. Only by reducing the population of the country by changing the current immigration policy and making it stricter, may the country hope to meet the costs of health care for its true citizens and residents. The illegal immigrants would have to be sent back to their poor nations; and legal immigration checked more strictly.
But, once again, it may be possible to consider other methods of change on behalf of the health care system before we single out the immigration policy as the perpetrator of poor health care. It is important to consider how else to improve the health care system on an immediate basis, seeing that the United States is not truly desirous of kicking out all illegal immigrants right away. Immigration Policy and Health Care in the United States 7 Neither does the nation wish to lose the large numbers of legal immigrants doing technology-based jobs, and serving the economy in all business sectors. If the U. S.
Were to send away most of the illegal immigrants at this time, and stop admitting new legal immigrants; it would definitely face a quick relaxation in its health care needs or demand. The supply of health care would ultimately meet the demand of the ‘natural’ Americans. There would be no hue and cry any longer. Both the immigration and health care problems would have been solved. However, the U. S. is not ready to do away with the illegal immigrants because they are now a part of American life. Neither does the country stop increasing its demand for legal immigrants because of its ever growing economy. Besides, the U. S.
Would face an economic drought if the illegal immigrants were to suddenly vanish, and new legal immigrants stopped coming in to work with new technology. The immigrants are contributing tremendously to the economy of the United States. The undocumented aliens are those that take up less-skilled jobs, and their wages are lower than those of the U. S-born laborers (McCarthy & Vernez, 1997). What is more, studies have shown that when the United States tightens border control, thereby making it more difficult than before for illegal aliens to enter the nation, the economic growth of the nation turns into economic sluggishness.
This is the reason why the United States – contrary to most people’s expectations – is thought to be unreasonably lenient toward undocumented aliens. And, although there appears to be a clear relationship between the problems in health care and the number of illegal immigrants rising; the U. S. would rather turn this relationship into one of convenience for all by finding a way to also fully support the health care needs of illegal aliens.