A few months ago I presented at a conference at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was reminded by the comments that people make that too often what people think about Hispanics is framed by their perception of undocumented people. The assumption is that all undocumented persons are Hispanics and if there are alot of Hispanics...it is probably because they are undocumented and shouldn't be getting services anyway.
The numbers are pretty straight forward. We know that there are 313 million people in the U.S. and about 55 million are Hispanic. Of the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. that are undocumented fewer than 8 million are Hispanic. This means that assuming every undocumented person is included in the count of 55 million Hispanics that 47 million Hispanics are in the U.S. legally. But people like having myths and scapegoats.
One of the proposed reasons for the rise in health care costs is that "all those" undocumented persons are using health resources. The facts according to the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that 41% of undocumented persons have health insurance and those that do not have health insurance either pay out of pocket or tend to avoid the health care system. The goal of undocumented workers is to work and not be noticed. That is why going for any type of health service, especially any which may require an interface with a government agency, is avoided.
So do we have a health crisis in the U.S.? Most definitely. But don't blame it on persons who are undocumented.
So do we have a health crisis in the U.S.? Most definitely. But don't blame it on persons who are undocumented.
