Hispanics could face barriers under health-care reform
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-10-12 11:12:15 | Word Count: 829
As the health-care reform debate takes shape in Congress, advocates worry that many Hispanics -- who have the highest rate of uninsured of all ethnic and racial groups -- could still be left without needed medical care.
Some think that out-of-pocket expenses would keep many Hispanics from buying insurance. For others, their immigration status could affect whether they get any kind of coverage.
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On Monday, several minority advocacy groups, including the National Council of La Raza and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, announced a campaign in favor of a public option that would cover more people in poor minority communities.
"The proposals assume that people have the money to buy health insurance. . ." and those who don't could be fined, said Josephine Mercado, director of Hispanic Health Initiatives, an advocacy group in Casselberry. "I just don't know how fair that system is going to be to the people who really need it."
Among those who might be priced out is Adela Moreno of Apopka, a legal immigrant from Mexico who has been living with an abdominal hernia for years because she lacks insurance and cannot afford treatment.
Her medical care consists of occasional $20 checkups at community clinics.
Under current proposals, Moreno would be required to buy medical insurance from an exchange, which would serve as a government-regulated marketplace, before she could qualify for tax subsidies.
But the mother of three doubts she and her husband could pay premiums on his income from odd jobs in construction.
"I don't have the resources to pay for myself," said Moreno, 46. "Legal or illegal, if you don't have the money, it's all the same."
While the Senate Finance Committee has defeated amendments that would have restricted access to legal immigrants, pending proposals would leave out millions of others who are in the country illegally, completely excluding them from benefits.
Illegal immigrants -- whose population adds up to about 1 million in Florida and 11 million nationwide -- became a flash point in the debate when U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., accused President Obama of lying about their eligibility during the president's national address last month.
Advocates on all sides agree that illegal immigrants excluded from health benefits will end up using public resources through emergency rooms and government-funded clinics.
"Either you encourage people to go home or you pay through the nose," said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that calls for stricter immigration enforcement. "There is no other way about it."
Others think that keeping illegal immigrants out of health benefits would also affect legal residents and U.S. citizens in mixed households, who might just opt out of the system altogether.
"The reality is that we have [undocumented and recent] immigrants in the same families as citizens, so trying to claim that health care should focus only on citizens is not addressing who we are as a nation," said Sonal Ambegaokar, a health-policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. "The goal of health-care reform was to avoid people going into emergency rooms for care and [instead] to see their doctors, so they don't have to delay care until it gets serious."
The Obama administration, though, issued a statement saying that health care reform will benefit more Americans, including those in minority communities.
"Health reform is very important for minorities in this country," said Cecilia Muņoz, Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the White House. "Through a health insurance exchange, Americans and immigrants who are here legally will be able to choose between several health plans that are low cost and high quality, to decide what will work best for their families."
Marytza Sanz, who heads the nonprofit advocacy group Latino Leadership in Orlando, agreed that while reform plans are not ideal they are still an improvement over the current system.
More legal residents and Hispanics who are citizens, such as those in Orlando's large Puerto Rican community, would have an opportunity to buy insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions, she said.
As things stand now, Sanz cannot buy insurance that would cover her care for diabetes and high blood pressure because companies consider her too much of a risk.
That would change under the government-regulated marketplace.
"More people will have some health care," Sanz said. "Right now, we have nothing."
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