Illegal immigration is part of the problem with America’s health care system. Right now, the millions of illegal immigrants who have swept into your country are tying up part of our health care system.
Our health care system is currently so wide open that the word has gotten out to other countries that you can enter the United States, walk into any hospital emergency room and demand health care, and the emergency room doctors and nurses are required to see you. This is causing a huge strain on our health insurance prices and availability. Between the years of 1998 and 2003, illegal immigrants were the cause of 86 percent of the increase in the number of those who are uninsured in our country.
How Illegal Immigrants Affect American Healthcare
The problem is this: When these millions of illegal immigrants walk into our hospitals and use our high-quality health care without insurance, someone has to pay for their care. At the same time, though, these immigrants need health care, and they can’t get this high of quality of care anywhere else in the world. Those who are paying for health insurance coverage are the ones who foot the bill. More than 40 percent of those who are in the United States illegally do not have any form of health insurance.
And this problem has a trickle-down effect. It doesn’t just mean higher prices for Americans who are paying health insurance premiums each month and on time; it means less coverage as well.
If you are middle-aged and need knee surgery, you may be told by your health insurance company that that kind of surgery is not truly necessary for you. They may tell you they won’t cover it. True, there are reasons other than illegal immigration that cause these problems, but because anywhere from 25-50% of the uninsured are illegal immigrants it poses a major contribution to health insurance costs.
Finding a solution to the illegal immigrants’ lack of healthcare or health insurance, either through legalization for taxes, or through other means could free up a lot of money for health insurance companies to spend on those of us who are legal American citizens.
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We can only hope that our new president will follow through on his promises of healthcare reform and help us save some money. As a webmaster for a group healthcare and financial products broker in Dade and Broward counties in South Florida, I see just how much the costs of care have risen here due to the heavy population of retirees and their needs for prescription drugs and just plain general health pictures. I am approaching retirement myself and have no desire to have to spend my hard earned annuities or IRA and 401K that I have saved as part of my retirement planning on healthcare insurance! Car pooling can help save a little, but healthcare reform would save me a whole lot more.
Jean Drogus
http://www.securefloridian.com