The U.S is one of the countries that experience an increased number of immigrants. The immigrants are from different races, spread throughout the country, a factor that makes a great challenge to state and federal healthcare agencies to offer equal rights to healthcare as its citizens who pay taxes. Many of the immigrants stay in the US illegally, without proper documents and do not have health covers (Berlinger, 2019). The issue of uninsured immigrant has resulted in diverse ethical concerns in the US healthcare industry. Uninsured immigrants are excluded from the government-sponsored health-related benefits including Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs. Moreover, in the U.S, clinicians need to have past health records for patients visiting the hospital to enable offer quality treatment. Undocumented immigrants might not have their health record in the hospital database, which hampers healthcare service provisions. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss why legislators need to support registration of all immigrants in the US.
Obamacare, which was enacted during the Obama administration, was to ensure equal healthcare to all American citizens. It was to ensure a reduced cost of healthcare, which could allow individuals from the middle and low-class access to health facilities (Arthur, 2018). In the US, immigrants are predominantly poor people, which is the reason for the need for the immigrants to acquire proper documentation, and health insurance covers. Health insurance cover would enable them to benefit from government-sponsored healthcare initiatives. Besides, clinicians need to work closely with the patients and the patient's employees to ensure that all employed immigrants pay taxes, have health insurance; thus, benefiting from the government-sponsored hospitals at a cheap cost.
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Additionally, over the past decades, health covers for employees were paid for by their employers. Company employers liked it because it assisted them in retaining good employees. However, employees felt exploited by their employers because it was deducted from their salaries. Moreover, the American immigrants, who are the minority were adversely affected during the period when health insurance was paid for by employers. Immigrants felt that their white employers were oppressing them by deducting their salaries for health covers yet some of the immigrants were illegally in the U.S and were not permitted to work in any firm. The step that was taken by President Obama was of significance and should be supported by legislatures. Obamacare reduced the cost of health insurance; thus, it was enacted to make healthcare care affordable for all citizens. Reasons for seeking legislators support on this current ethical issue include:
Some states have community-based healthcare services, which are non-beneficial to the federal government
Uninsured or undocumented individuals do not benefit from the reduced cost of healthcare services
There is a need to formulate medical-legal partnership for healthcare professionals
Clinicians, therefore, need to give quality health services to all American citizens irrespective of their status. Health is one of the significant factors driving the US economy. Since Obamacare was enacted, there is a reduced mortality rate in the US; thus, the cheap cost of healthcare has ensured many people access hospitals (Kuruvilla, & Raghavan, 2014). Ultimately, it is important to recommend the need to formulate laws governing immigration into the US. The law can assist in ensuring registration for all American citizens including immigrants who eligible of becoming citizens through registration. Besides, U.S has the largest number of immigrants who need to pay taxes and benefit from government-sponsored facilities such as hospitals and schools. Also, legislatures need to support equal rights to health and other services such as education for all American immigrants. Every citizen is entitled to good health. Therefore, immigrants, similar to other American citizens, should be allowed to access government-sponsored hospitals because some of the immigrants are extremely poor and cannot afford treatment in private hospitals.
References
Arthur, Y. F. (2018). “Obamacare” covers fifty-four million Americans for acupuncture as Essential Healthcare Benefit. Journal of Integrative Medicine , 12 (4), 390-393.
Berlinger, N. (2019). Undocumented Immigrants and Barriers to Health Care Access. A Journal of Ethics : Retrieved from https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/sites/journalofethics.ama-assn.org/files/2018-12/medu2-1901_1.pdf
Kuruvilla, R., & Raghavan, R. (2014). Health care for undocumented immigrants in Texas: past, present, and future. Texas Medicine , 110 (7), e1-e1.
