U.s. Health Insurance Coverage

“Many Hispanics combine traditional health care practices with Western medicine. Although the use of Western medicine tends to be more prevalent, Hispanics who cannot afford these services often resort to traditional practices” (CDC, n.d.).

Limited access to health care for Spanish Speaking populations is due to inability to afford services, difficulty with transportation, dissatisfaction with services, language barriers and inability to understand treatment plans. Health indicators of Spanish Speaking populations suggests that health outcomes continue to be behind other population groups, they also remain below goals established by Healthy People 2010 (Butler, Kim-Godwwin, & Fox, 2008). The US Spanish Speaking population represents a particular vulnerable subset of US Hispanics that have lower-income, less education, poor perceived health status and poor access to the health care System (Dubar & Gizlice, 2008).

Latinos and Hispanics have a long history here in the United States of America. The term “Hispanic” is most often used by the government, which is what will be used through the rest of this document. Hispanics are the fastest growing group in the United States and their numbers will continue to increase as years go by. Mexicans are the largest subgroup of Hispanics making up 66% of the population while the other 34% includes Central and South Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Hispanic origins. California, Texas, and Florida have the highest populations of Hispanics. In regards to health insurance, Hispanics have the highest rates of uninsured in the United States.

The language barrier is a glaring problem for Hispanics in terms of accessing health care coverage for several reasons. Hispanics have far fewer Spanish speaking support systems to navigate them through the complex system that will provide them access to health care. In addition, demographically speaking, it is going to be harder for the Hispanic population to access a provider that is fluent in their language. While interpreters are sometimes available for the Spanish speaking population, they may be reluctant to use them. Primarily they may be worried that the translation will not be accurately reported to the health care provider as they don’t know what is being said in the English portion of the translation. Another possible barrier to translation is that perhaps the individual has a medical issue they do not want shared with a stranger who is not the medical provider specifically (Maxwell et al., 2011). Therefore, these issues could possibly create more barriers to quality care. Although the Affordable Care Act has increased health care coverage for low-income, uninsured Hispanics with the expansions of Medicaid, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, this remains to be a state option. Studies show an estimated 95% of uninsured Latinos would qualify for Medicaid

Mexican Americans are the largest Hispanic group living in the United States. They make up 7.3% of the nation’s population (Newman Giger, 2013). Some of the disparities associated with this culture consist of lack of access to health care and medical insurance. Language barriers and insufficient knowledge about free clinics are other areas for concern.

The health care system in the U.S. is used less than its full capacity by Hispanic women, especially after recent migration to the U.S. Among recent immigrants, protective factors such as traditions, health values and behaviors are shown to guard and strengthen health. Safeguards to health deteriorate sharply as they acculturate to U.S. society ((Sanchez-Birkhead, 2010).

Cultural, traditional, and religious values have an influence on health patterns and behaviors exhibited by the community. Hispanic culture is dominant due to the close proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border. Fifty-two percent of households use a language other than English at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Therefore, an understanding of Hispanic culture is necessary for health care workers to effectively care for patients in this community.

Research show Hispanics are nearly three times more than likely to have poor access to health care, poor access also stem because of cultural differences, such as language

But for the rest of the population substantial disparities still exist. This problem not only affects the uninsured population and the communities they live in, but the entire nation's economy. Dozens of hospitals in Texas, New Mexico Arizona, and California, have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally mandated programs requiring hospitals to provide free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Safety net hospitals continue to operate under a heavy burden of providing care to this largely uninsured population (Torres, Steven, & Wallace, 2013). Having access to healthcare is a necessity in maintaining the good health of these undocumented immigrants. Several solutions have been proposed to overcome the barriers affecting undocumented immigrants. One solution would be to expand the coverage of the Affordable Health Care Act for this population. Another solution would be to approve an amnesty bill to alleviate the undocumented immigrants' situation in the United Sates, which would allow them to access public health

Latinos face many barriers that will also affect their process in seeking services. One of the barriers they face is due to their financial issues and transportation. (Bauer et al. 2000; Bell and Naugle 2005; Fugate et al. 2005; Lewis et al. 2005; Strube 1988 as cited in Mookerjee, Fernandez, & Chin, 2015). Not all Latinos have an income and are living in low income households. Also not having transportation to be able to seek those services is also a barrier for Latinos. Although public transportation is always something they may use, if they are low income some may not even have enough for that. They may be unemployed, and also lack insurance coverage. (Callejas et al. 2006; Bussing et al. 2003; Derose and Baker 2000; Garland et al. 2005;

Federal and state legislations can deny undocumented individuals access to public benefits such as healthcare services, public assistance programs, and public housing. Policy research details how approximately fifty-one percent of undocumented individuals in California are uninsured and are excluded from private insurance plans that would allow them to access valuable health services (Wallace, Torres, Nobari, & Pourat, 2010). Undocumented women are disproportionally affected in accessing services related to reproductive health care as well as prenatal care, which can negatively impact their health. In her research, Marrows (2012) describes how uninsured rates remain high among undocumented individuals even in sanctuary cities such as San Francisco that practice “right-to-care” strategies, aiming to produce inclusivity, and that create public funds for immigrants. This is primarily due to a shortage of

According to the NILC (National Immigration Law Center), In America “Uninsured adults are more than 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with health insurance.” (“The Consequences of Being Uninsured” 2). As a result of these adults not have access to health insurance, they also didn’t have access to good quality health services or any health services at all. Health services that are both good quality and accessible is very important to people’s health. Unfortunately in America this kind of service is hard to obtain. A lack of access to good quality health services can ruin the health condition of everybody, but spreading awareness of the effects of lack of good quality health services, and support from organizations can help bring accessible good quality health services to America.

Women and ethnic minorities have been subjected to many inequalities in the health care system. Though there are efforts to “improving” the system, some women are still under represented. These under representations are caused by inadequate ways to receiving health care and restrictions of things such as abortions. According to the chapter “Navigating the Health Care System” in the text book Our Bodies, Ourselves; the author states, “Unfortunately, health care reform includes burdensome restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion care and unacceptable limits on access to coverage for certain immigrant women” (Norsigian, p.653,

In “Paradox found (again): Infant Mortality among the Mexican-origin population in the United States” (2007), Hummer and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether the epidemiologic paradox exist for Mexican-origin population of the united states with regard to one very well measured outcome: infant mortality. To assert, first they analyze data from the National center for health and statistics on 20 million cases of birth and 150,00 infant death using maternal identifications reported on birth certificate to calculate age specific infant mortality rate among Mexicans origin population. Secondly, they compare infants of U.S born (Mexican American) women as well as infants to foreign born groups such as non-Hispanic white, non- Hispanic

Immigration in the United States dates back to colonial times circa 1607 and still occurs today (ProCon.org, “Historical Timeline”). Along with the long history of immigration in the United States, healthcare has always been viewed as a right and not a privilege here. The adoption of a system of social insurance for American use proved that healthcare and well being should be a right of the people. Today, the United States has a very diverse population of people, many of them being immigrants from other countries. “Immigrants are a large and rapidly growing segment of the [United States] population, and they disproportionately lack health insurance.” (Goldman, Smith, and Sood 1640) The people that come to the United States legally are not the significance of the issue. However, those that come illegally have brought about numerous issues of concern to the citizens of the United States.