“Ten million illegal immigrants live in the US, according to estimates by academic and government agencies, although Bear-Stearns investment firm analysts claim that the US illegal immigrant population “may be as high as 20 million people.” (Illegal Immigration, 2 May 2009).
Every year millions of people sneak illegally into another country by crossing the border line, this is very common in United States of America. This is called illegal Immigration, in other words, people who do not have work permit or any kind of permission from the government to come and stay in that particular country. The same affects the health facilities in the country and negatively impacts the overall healthcare facilities in the USA.
Research has found that illegal immigration affects the citizens of that particular country, especially the poor people and the legal immigrants. It is also found that the taxes paid by these illegal immigrants are far less than the services received by them. Countries like United States of America are trying their level best to counter this by increased border patrol but this is not only reason for illegal immigration, most of the cases occur because of people who overstay even after their visa is expired.
United States of America provides Medicaid facilities to the legal and illegal immigrants but this results in a very big loss for the economy of the country because the people take undue advantage of the same by overstaying in the hospitals even after recovery. The Medicaid policies depend on state to state but there are some states in America which provide the young children and elders requiring medical attention with great facilities like free drugs, free nursing and proper medical attention.
Off late the federal law has brought in many restrictions to keep a check on the illegal immigrants, this also ensures a strict check on the money spent on the public welfare. Some of the services provided by Medicaid to the people are Vaccine for the children, rural health care services, transportation services and these are just a handful of many services provided by the Medicaid in America.
The funding of these services provided by the states comes from a partnership between the federal and the state government and this was established in the year 1965, this comes under the social security act. “States with lower per capita income get more government money, those with higher get less. This Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in 2000 paid 76.8% of all Medicaid in Mississippi, 70 % in the District of Columbia, and 59.8% in Alaska. Alaska’s FMAP increased markedly in 2005. The federal government also reimburses states for Medicaid administration and for Indian Health Service facilities.” (Medicaid, 2 May 2009)
“Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. This is a public health insurance program which provides needed health care services for low-income individuals including families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, foster care, pregnant women, and low income people with specific diseases such as tuberculosis, breast cancer or HIV/AIDS. Medi-Cal is financed equally by the State and federal government.” (Health care services, 2 May 2009).
There are various programs under Medi-Cal, some of the most noticeable ones are, Access for infants and mothers which provides pregnant women with a very low cost quality attention. American Indian infant Health Initiative, this provides the Indian families with home management services to the families at high risk. According to a study it was found that the largest expenditure made on illegal immigrants was on their children’s education. There are many other facilities given to the illegal immigrants and there is so much spent day in and day out in providing these services to these people.
Major Problems and solutions
There are many people in the US who are uninsured with regard to the health care; the young children especially become very vulnerable because of the same, an example will prove the point better young children who are uninsured have very less or no chance of being operated if they are diagnosed with a deadly disease like cancer or for that matter any other disease. The cost of health insurance has been constantly on the rise in the country and it is becoming very difficult for the people in the country to afford insuring themselves against the possible occurrence of any health related problems.
“The uninsured people in the US owe a lot of money to the hospitals, the collection agencies are trying to collect the money from them. The children who have not been insured are very less likely to receive treatment even if they suffer from serious injuries. Even those who have been affected by lung cancer or other serious diseases that require a surgery to be done will not be operated if they are not insured. Patients suffering from diseases like heart-attack will not receive angioplasty if they are not insured. Patients suffering from Pneumonia are very less likely to receive facilities like X-Ray and other medication.” (Health Care in America, 2 May 2009).
Racism in the US also affects the health of the people who are a minority in the country; the blacks are very vulnerable to developing chronic diseases and this is because their homes are located in poor localities in the US, the same has a bearing on their health and makes them extremely vulnerable to developing diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS etc. The blacks are treated differently than the whites in the US, for instance the treatment or the medical prescription given to a white would be very different than that of a black who visits the same hospital. This not only affects the health care system in the country but it also affects the overall balance of a country.
The government has to take initiative to improve the overall quality of health care in the country. First of all the government should make sure that no discrimination of any kind takes place in the country, by doing this the US would make sure that the blacks or the minority do not suffer from what they are suffering now, this would enable them to prosper inevitably resulting the growth and development of the country.
Another thing which has to be done is that the government must take initiative to establish more hospitals in the country because there have been numerous cases when the shortage of hospitals in the country has resulted in the death of many people so to make sure that this is not repeated in the future, the government should establish more hospitals in the country. If these two steps are initiated than the overall health care system in the country is sure to develop by leaps and bounds.
Solutions to Prevent Illegal Immigration in the US
The US government had been ineffective in dealing with the problem of immigration, there are many ways by which the people violate the rules set by the US government for instance people who have got expired Visas still stay in the country, this is illegal and the US government has to deal with this problem sooner rather than later. The same has devastating impacts on the economy of the US.
The example of the Medicaid policies was just a small example to prove that the government of the US incurs hefty losses due to immigration of people. It is high time for the US government to make stricter rules and to follow those rules at any cost if they are to stand any chance of protecting their country from this serious problem. The security at the border has to be tightened to make sure that no person is given the liberty to sneak in the US. There are lapses in the security which is why the illegal immigration is constantly on the rise and the most worrying factor is that the government in spite of knowing this has been unable to take appropriate steps.
Companies like Wal-Mart recruit immigrants, whether they are recruited knowingly or unknowingly is a different question altogether, in the year 2005 the company had to pay a whopping $11 million to the US government when it was found that hundreds of thousands of employee working in Wal-Mart were illegal Immigrants. This goes to show the failure of the US government to deal with this long standing problem. Some possible solutions can be fines, Arrests, Military service etc (How Should the US deal with illegal Immigration, 2 May 2009). The country has already suffered a lot of loss because of this problem; they cannot afford to ignore it. If they do so then the future of the US citizens is certainly not looking bright.
References
Health care services. In Dhcs.ca. Web.
Health Care in America. In Kottke. Web.
Illegal Immigration. In US Liberal Politics. Web.
Medicaid. In News with views. Web.