The U. S. has been experiencing a steadily increasing influx of immigrants from Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean and other regions of the world. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are 37. 9 million legal and illegal immigrants currently in the U. S. , so that for every native-born American, there are eight immigrants (Camarota 10). Of this number, 27% entered the country within the past 7 years. Poverty, government neglect and civil unrest have been cited as the main reasons as to why large numbers of people migrate to developed countries such as the U.S. (UNFPA).
At the same time, developed countries have also promoted immigration. In the U. S. , unskilled labor shortages during harvest season compelled the government to forge Guest Worker program agreements with countries in the Caribbean (St. Bernard 15). The alarming shortage of health care workers in virtually all hospitals in the U. S. also left the nation’s door open to competent health professionals from overseas (Pittman).
However, of those immigrants who arrived in the last 7 years, 54.3% are illegal aliens, majority of which came from Mexico and Central and South America, putting the total number of illegal immigrants at 11. 3 million (Camarota 7). The U. S. Customs and Border Patrol defined an illegal immigrant as “an individual who has entered the United States without proper documentation or permission or an individual who has entered the United States legally, i. e. as a visitor, but who violates his/her immigration status, becomes an illegal alien and is subject to removal from the United States. ” (U. S. CBP).
Illegal immigration is encouraged by current leniency that allows individuals and families to partake of welfare benefits even if they are not American citizens or of legal immigrant status. The prospect of getting welfare assistance as a fallback for unemployment or inadequate employment is a strong pull factor for illegal aliens that in the long run deplete our welfare funds and leave tax-paying as well as lower-income Americans at a disadvantage. Illegal immigrants take advantage of our welfare system, especially the emergency medical assistance under Medicaid, with detrimental effects on our economy.
Profile of Illegal Immigrants Of the total number of both legal and illegal immigrants who entered the U. S. since 2000, 31% did not graduate from high school (Camarota 15). Most of the lower educated illegal aliens sneaked into the country via the Mexican border. With this level of educational attainment and because of non-citizen status, illegal immigrants can not land adequate paying jobs in the highly competitive labor market in the U. S. Although they strive to find work, they end up working in the lowest paid blue collar jobs.
Hence, legal and illegal immigrants have a significantly higher rate of poverty than native born Americans. An estimated 34% of immigrants have not availed of health insurance as opposed to 13% of the native-born and 33% of immigrant families are receiving welfare assistance while only 19% of native-born families do so (Camarota 17, 20). Illegal immigrants account for the considerable increase in the number of poor people and the number of “public charges” which means people taken care of by the public through welfare programs.
Food stamps, medical assistance, cash assistance and school lunches are some of the welfare programs accessible in various degrees to illegal immigrants and are currently being used (Aizenman). Illegal Immigrants and Medicaid According to the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill which is applicable up to the present, illegal immigrants can not avail of the full benefits of Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) (Rector). However, they can qualify for access to the emergency medical services whose funds are sourced from Medicaid.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 or HR 3963 has drastically made it easier for immigrants to fully access Medicaid. By reducing the number of required documents and processes for immigrant or citizenship status verification, illegal immigrants can use the Social Security numbers of legitimate citizens in order to access the full benefits of Medicaid (Rector). Access to health benefits without meeting the prerequisites as set forth by law constitutes the fraudulent use of welfare funds which also means cheating on taxpayers.
Presently, illegal immigrants can also benefit from nutrition programs, pre-natal care and health clinics that are not part of Medicaid and do not require stringent eligibility requirements (FAIR). The 14th Amendment of the Constitution declares the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the U. S. as citizens making them qualified for the same benefits as Americans (Pear). As such, babies born on U. S. soil to illegal immigrant parents can legally avail of twelve months Medicaid coverage.
In the state of Washington, 8,000 such babies were given state welfare medical assistance in 2006 while the Parkland Hospital in Texas recorded 11,500 such babies in 2005 (Pear and Preston). In 2005, the amount of Medicaid funds meant to cover the delivery of one illegal immigrant woman in Florida was $900. 00 for a day such that for the 16,281 such births in the same year, this cost the state $14. 65 million in Medicaid Emergency Alien Fund (Simmons). In Washington, illegal immigrants also have access to Medicaid benefits for a month or several months after they underwent emergency treatment.
In most states, emergency Medicaid is most frequently used by pregnant uninsured women, majority of them illegal immigrants, in their pre-natal care, labor and delivery (Kershaw and Preston). A disturbing phenomenon pertains to that of “anchor babies” or babies that illegal immigrants use in order to gain a foothold into U. S. society and welfare system.
Pregnant Mexican women cross the border into Texas and other border states as they near their term in order to deliver babies that qualify under the 14th amendment and who will serve to sponsor other family members to enter the U.S. as legal immigrants when they are of legal age (Simmons).
The state of New York has also been spending around $5-$10 million a year to provide for all the chemotherapy-related expenses of cancer patients who are illegal immigrants (Kershaw). This is because state law has declared it illegal to deny health care to anybody, be they illegal migrants with no health insurance. Hospitals can consequently charge related expenses to the state welfare funds. In New York, cancer is the second leading cause of mortality for citizens and immigrants alike in the state.
From 2001 to 2006, the state incurred $11 million in chemotherapy expenses of illegal immigrants which is 1. 3% of their total welfare budget of $847 million (Kershaw). Many New Yorkers are criticizing this initiative when they stated that “while thousands of equally low-income and uninsured Americans are finding it more and more difficult to pay for their health care and insurance, the state fully shoulders the millions of dollars needed for the treatments of illegal immigrants” (Kershaw).
The expenses incurred for welfare health care are increasing as the number of illegal immigrants also increases. In North Carolina, the state welfare expenses for pregnant uninsured women rose 28% in 2004 from the base figure in 2001 (Kershaw). In Harris Country, Texas, a fifth of their patients in the same year were illegal immigrants where the state spent $97. 3 million for their health care needs corresponding to 14% of the area’s health operating expenses (Preston).
In another report, California public hospitals spent more or less $1.02 billion in 2005 in caring for illegal immigrants (Preston). However, the federal and state governments have yet to reimburse the full amount of these expenses from welfare funds due to the heated immigration debate and changing policies. This pushed the already overburdened public health care systems beyond the limits of their financial capacities. Federal support amounted to just $66 million for that year and is a far cry from the more than a billion dollars in expenses (Preston).
The president of the California Hospital Association relayed the organization’s fears that the “ever increasing number of uninsured which is attributed to the influx of illegal immigrants could cause public hospitals to close down due to bankruptcy in the near future” (Preston). Not a few hospitals in New York also share the same situation. The Peconic Health Corporation (PHC), which represents three private but non-profit hospitals in the Eastern End has proposed that taxpayers help in stabilizing the system’s operations in 2004 but with little public support (Boody).
The PHC stated that the reason why they are struggling is because of “the huge numbers of illegal and of course uninsured immigrants whom they can not refuse to treat as they will violate state law”, where “about 8% of the hospitals’ expected income from patient’s fees, or roughly $5. 6 million, were spent for such cases” (Boody). Hence, financial constraints leave no room for increasing the financial remuneration of health care workers such as nurses, radiologists, medical technologists and others that are crucial in retaining them, especially in public or community hospital settings (Pittman).
Worse, this constraints lead to the necessity to reduce the hospital workforce. Hospitals may also lose the capacity to adequately maintain its facilities or upgrade them. Understaffed and underfinanced health care systems and insufficient federal and state Medicaid funds being drained by illegal immigrants put the uninsured Americans in the same predicament as uninsured illegal immigrants. This compromises the rights of citizens who should primarily benefit from government assistance for their health care needs.