Health Care For Illegal Immigrant

Health Care For Illegal Immigrant

Health Care for Illegal Immigrants

In 2007, there were an estimated 37.9 million immigrants residing in the United States. With 12.6 percent of the population, or one in every eight residents being non native, this is a large portion of our population and it is growing daily. Almost one in every three immigrants is an “illegal” immigrant with the majority coming from Central and South America (Camarota, 2007).   In January 2006, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that there were 11.6 million “illegal” immigrants in the United States, with roughly 6.6 million of them having emigrated from Mexico.   Of the immigrants that emigrated north to America; 55 percent of immigrants from Mexico are illegal,   47 percent of immigrants from Central America are illegal and 33 percent of immigrants from South America are illegal (Camarota, 2007).  

America has always been known as the land of opportunity. People come from all over the world to settle here and hopefully create a better life for themselves and their families. With all that America has to offer shouldn’t that slice of the American pie that everyone is chasing include healthcare?

With the aging of American’s population and the retirement of the baby boomers on the horizon, there will be a shortage of healthy, willing and able bodies to replace them. We simply do not have enough young Americans to fill the gaps that will be left once the baby boomers have all migrated out of the workforce. If some of these replacements are “illegal” immigrants, then shouldn’t we be thankful for the extra help to feed, clean, and support our American society?   Some of the nurses or hospice care workers that are taking care of our elderly are illegal immigrants from the Phillipeans and other countries. They should be allowed to access the health care system that they are a part of. Healthcare should be available to those that are willing to work; legal citizen or not. We need our workforce strong and...