Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants

Saul Diaz was a penniless, unemployed and uninsured undocumented alien living in Georgia. He got into a severe car accident. While he was in hospital, he racked up $1 million in medical expenses. Before being sent back to Mexico, he died. The uncompensated bill was left over for the hospital. An illegal immigrant pregnant lady delivered her baby in U. S. She received Medicaid on her baby and prenatal care. Under the Medicaid, she got paid for her child delivery cost, her Spanish interpreter and diapers for her baby (Guzzardi, 2). What is the common thread in these two stories?Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants

They are both about illegal immigrants who received medical care without paying for it. Here comes another argument: Should we provide health care service to illegal aliens who have not contributed to our country? Would that be unfair to our citizens because we had shared a piece of our properties with the illegal aliens? No matter whether the answer is “yes” or “no”, the illegal immigrants are greatly disturbing out health care system. Since World War II, poor workers from largely Agrarian, Catholic and authoritarian Spain flocked northward into industrialized and more democratic Germany and France to find jobs (Hanson, 1).

Until now, people are still moving place to place for better living standard or better job opportunities. For some countries such as Mexico, people tries to get away from the impoverishment and the politic from entering U. S. borders illegally. According to “How Will the Illegal Immigrant Ends? ”, Mexico’s per capita gross domestic products is only a quarter of the United States (Hanson, 2). Wages in Mexico are far lower than in America. Many Mexican came to U. S. to achieve better living standard even by illegal method. There are approximately 14 to 22 millions of illegal immigrants in U. S. urrently, according to the data given by the Department of Homeland Security (Health Care Solution in the Real World). They are uninsured, most likely under the impoverished line. They are eligible for Medicaid by the law. As we can see from the cases in the beginning, the hospital will provide emergency care for patients, regardless of whether they are undocumented or not. They failed to pay the bill and put a huge burden on the hospital. According to the article, “Why the Health Care Is So Costly? ”, U. S. hospitals in border states spend at least $1 billion a year in providing health care to illegal aliens.

In 2005, eighty hospitals in Florida ended in closure due to unbearable costs and expenses (Schlafly, 3). This would be a big problem for the Florida citizens because the close out of hospitals makes them less accessible to health care service. Moreover, since the undocumented aliens are uninsured, they cannot afford to pay the expensive medical bills. Base on their identity, they cannot access regular health care service because they cannot provide a proof of their citizenship. As a result they can only use the emergency room service whenever they need medical care.Health Care System and Illegal Immigrants