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Affordable Care Act Of 1996

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The Affordable Care Act meant to give accessible medical care/health care to millions of people living in America, yet there is a large group that has been omitted from such act. Illegal immigrants are not eligible to buy health coverage nor receive help that would allow them to buy affordable health care. Because of this, illegal immigrants are not able to receive health care that they sometimes desperately need. The Affordable Care Act is not the only act passed in the United States that has placed limits on how illegal immigrants can get health coverage. Proposition 187 in California and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 have put restrictions on health coverage for illegal immigrants. Which has led…show more content…
There have been legislative bills that have limited the access that illegal immigrants have to medical care, whether it be private insurance or with federal help such as state funded resources like Medical. For example the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 restricts medical care for illegal immigrants. Jeffrey Kullgren a medical student at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, argues that having severe limitations on health care services threatens the public’s health. He argues that the original purposes of the act were to reduce illegal immigration and preserve resources yet the act burdens health care providers and endangers the public’s health. The act stated that it was made in order to “remove the incentive for illegal immigration” and so that “individual aliens not burden the public benefits system”. These were the argument made in order to place eligibility restrictions for service made available by the local, state and federal governments. Although there were exceptions to the act, such as being able to get emergency care and immunizations, it still made getting proper health care very difficult. Placing these kinds of restrictions on people Kullgren argues has consequences on health. One is that it leads to greater waiting times and increase cost which reduces the efficiency of medical facilities. Another is that it can affect the lives of the American born children of immigrants. Although they are able to receive medical services, their parents are afraid to seek health care because they believe that they can get deported. Or they are not sure of whether their children are able to get medical coverage. Another negative result due to the act, Kullgren states, is that public resources are not being effectively used. It costs more to treat emergency situations that could have been easily prevented or that could have
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