Even before the Affordable Care Act was close to passing, it was clear that immigrants illegally living in the country would not be part of many of the law鈥檚 benefits. They are聽not allowed to buy health insurance from the聽online聽marketplaces,聽at least in part聽because聽opponents argued that these immigrants overburden emergency rooms and hospitals. But a finds that they鈥檙e less likely to use health services than U.S. citizens and other immigrants here legally.
However, that was not true about children鈥檚 doctor visits. Ninety percent of U.S.-born children had at least one doctor visit in the preceding year, while only 78 percent of the children in the state illegally did. Naturalized citizens and immigrants in the state legally also had significantly higher rates than those without proper authority.
The survey 鈥渄oes not explicitly inquire about undocumented status,鈥� researcher write, so they 鈥渄eveloped a model to estimate California鈥檚 鈥渦ndocumented immigrant population.鈥�
鈥榊ou Wait And Wait Until Something Forces You To Go鈥�
Mammography and colorectal cancer screening rates were also significantly lower among the adults here illegally compared to their U.S.-born counterparts or other immigrants who have permission to be in the country.
鈥淲hen you don鈥檛 have the resources, money or there鈥檚 a language barrier, you鈥檙e not going to go for your annual checkup or cancer screenings,鈥� said Nadereh Pourat, lead author for the study and director of research for the University of California Los Angeles鈥� Center for Health Policy Research. 鈥淵ou wait and wait until something forces you to go.鈥�
Undocumented immigrants comprise 6.8 percent of California鈥檚 population but make up 24 percent of the state鈥檚 uninsured population.
Pourat said the researchers also found even when immigrants who are in the country illegally have insurance, they use fewer health services than other immigrants with insurance. She said that could be caused by their fears of revealing their immigration status, the language barrier, and out-of-pocket costs. Pourat said allowing these immigrants access to the marketplaces will not only help be healthier but it will also save them money because they are more likely to deal with health problems earlier and perhaps in a less expensive way.
鈥淥ne or five doctor visits costs much less than one emergency room visit,鈥� Pourat said.
The decision to keep these immigrants out of the health insurance聽marketplaces, also known as exchanges, may also hurt the hospitals and other health care providers serving large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients, the study suggests. Federal funding for those safety-net facilities is being cut back. Some of the newly insured may move to more traditional sources of care, leaving these facilities with an overload of immigrants who are in the state illegally. Much of the care for those people may be uncompensated and could be聽unpopular, the researchers point out.
鈥淚f a community health clinic is only left with undocumented immigrants to treat, politically that could be 聽a charged issue,鈥� Pourat said.