Survey: Most undocumented Latinos lack heath care

One of the most contentious aspects in the already controversial debate over heath care reform has to do with illegal immigrants. None of the reform proposals currently in Congress would permit the government to provide health benefits to the undocumented. In fact, legislators are going out of their way to ensure that there’s plenty of enforcement to close possible medical loopholes for illegal immigrants.

How health care reform should treat immigrants- legal or not- is certainly up for discussion. Yet research by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) concluded that the lack of health insurance has hit many within the Latino community:

Six out of 10 U.S. Hispanic illegal immigrants lack health insurance, more than twice the rate for legal Latino residents and citizens and three times the average for the population as a whole, a study released on Friday showed…

The study found that 28 percent of adult Hispanics who are either legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens go without health insurance, compared to 17 percent of the U.S. adult population as a whole.

The PHC also found that 41% of Latino illegal immigrants seek routine care at community clinics or health centers. (According to the PHC, these clinics serve as “a ‘safety net’ for the vulnerable” and are funded by sources including private foundations, the government, and the patients themselves).

The survey- which reexamined a previous study done in 2007- also found that 76% of undocumented Latino adults rated the quality of medical care they received in the past year as excellent or good. Surprisingly, most of those who received poor medical treatment in the past five years blamed the language barrier as to why they got bad treatment over economics and ethnicity.

Odds are the PHC survey will do little to sway strong opinions on health care and immigrants. Yet the study provides valuable data on how much the lack of health care impacts the Latino community.

Image- Dallas Morning News (“Dr. John A. Menchaca checks the paperwork on 16-month-old Consuelo Canchola as her mother Amy Ortiz dresses her.”)
Online Sources- Pew Hispanic Center, Los Angeles Times, The Latin Americanist, Reuters