Why Expanding Health-Care Access Must Include Immigrants
“Excluding immigrants from health care is bad for immigrants, but it also threatens public health more generally. Makhlouf describes the case of Elena (a pseudonym), a poultry worker in Iowa without employer-provided health care, who ‘came to the United States from Guatemala with her husband and young children to escape gang violence.’ Elena becomes sick with tuberculosis but can’t afford the fee to see a doctor; she can’t even afford to take a day off work. When she doesn’t get treatment, though, that also puts her co-workers, friends, and family at risk.”