Foreign Born Children and Health Care

As a result of the United States facing financial crisis and suffering from a lack of accessible health care, a large percentage of the American public disagree with an immigration policy that allows illegal immigrants to have access to subsidized health care. While illegal immigrants are not legally entitled to many of the forms of health care citizens can get, they sometimes rely heavily on state emergency Medicaid dollars--these funds are designated as part of government-sponsored health care program geared towards low-income households.

In cases of medical emergencies, hospitals cannot turn anyone away, regardless of financial or legal standing. Yet, illegal residents are not entitled to anything beyond emergency health care unless they pay out of pocket for it. Many then choose to visit free public clinics for medical help, but these clinics are often understaffed and overbooked.

Aside from California, Texas is the most popular state for illegal adult and child immigration, due mostly to its close proximity to the Mexican border. In Texas alone, it has been estimated that illegal immigrants, many of which are considered to be children of illegal immigration, cost hospitals roughly $1.3 billion in 2006--a number that has continued to grow.

Politicians are desperately trying to come to an agreement about the policies that should go into effect involving illegal adult and child immigration. Some are trying to cut the amount of money taxpayers have had to spend footing the often-large medical bills that are required for basic care of illegal immigrants. These same policymakers are trying to cut down the amount of money that the American public spends on the education of a child born to parents without citizenship.

Nationally, efforts to get health insurance for just a legal child immigrant from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is still up in the air. Many argue that illegal immigrants adversely affect the number of American citizens without health insurance due to the increasing costs of adult and child immigrant health care.

America has been facing a health care crisis for some time now, and even with health care on the national agenda, Americans are still struggling to get the care they need. The question of whether or not illegal immigrants, regardless of age, should be entitled to free health care is a notoriously controversial issue.

NEXT: The Nightmare of Deporting Foreign Children