FREE ESSAY ON IMMIGRATION & HEALTHCARE

IMMIGRATION & HEALTHCARE

Immigration & Health Care
As many as 830,000 non-citizen immigrants are residents of California. Nearly one in five
non-citizens, under the age of 65 in California, is covered by Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal is an
essential source of healthcare insurance for millions of low-income, elderly, and
disabled residents of California. "Despite its anti-immigrant reputation, California has
been among the most generous of the 50 states in providing public aid to needy
non-citizens who lost benefits in the 1996 federal welfare overhaul." 
Under current law, legal immigrants are eligible for Medi-Cal if they meet income and
other requirements established by the state. Illegal immigrants may obtain Medi-Cal only
for emergency medical services and for prenatal care. "California, home to about
one-third of the nation's immigrants, passed 
ballot initiatives in this decade targeting illegal immigrants, health care, affirmative
action, and bilingual education."
Last year taxpayers spent more than one-hundred million dollars in aid and benefits for
immigrants. "Governor Gray Davis, in one of several early attempts to reverse his
republican predecessor's policies, wants the state to spend $60 million on prenatal care
for poor pregnant women who are illegal immigrants, money that former Governor Pete
Wilson repeatedly fought to cut from California's bugdet."
"It is estimated that for every dollar the state spends on health care for pregnant
women, it saves $3.00 in health care costs for infants who otherwise would be born with
preventable maladies." The loss of this health coverage would primarily affect children
and women by cutting access to essential health services such as prenatal care and
emergency rooms. This would then result in higher medical costs (increased cost 
to taxpayers) due to people delaying to seek medical attention and unnecessary
hospitalizations.
"Those hurt most by restricting prenatal care, health advocates said, would be United
States born children, who are automatically citizens, regardless of their mother's
immigration status. Prenatal care is an important tool for discovering AIDS, tuberculosis
and other diseases." By eliminating health care for non-citizen pregnant women, we are
endangering the health and lives both the mother and the child which is indeed a United
States citizen.