Immigrants in the United States of America face many challenges every day. They can struggle with money, employment, language and the list goes on. One thing that immigrants in the U.S. struggle with is having affordable and proper access to health care. Many people have access to health care and pay with insurance or pay out-of-pocket. Health care in the United States is a fickle and complicated thing. In the United States, a legal citizen or resident can get health care insurance through their employment benefits, by going through Obamacare. Which is part of the Affordable Health Care Act, Medicare which is for patients 65 years or older, or Medicaid which is a program for patients with low income.
These are all great options but what is the problem with them? There are many issues with the Health Care system in the United States. If you get your insurance from your place of employment, then the cost of the insurance will be taken out of your check and this price depends on what insurance you have and if you have dependents. Insurance through the Affordable HealthCare Act is more affordable, but it does come with requirements such as being a legal U.S. citizen or resident and making a certain amount of money each year. A thing all these types of insurance have in common is you must have legal status in the United States to be eligible. For many immigrants, this is obviously an obstacle for them. The ways for them to have coverage is to be under someone else’s insurance coverage such as a partner who is documented or to buy private insurance. As for Medicare, an undocumented person can apply for emergency reasons.
