Making Healthcare Fair
After decades of efforts, California has gotten one step closer to making universal health coverage a reality. In 2016, California began implementing a series of policies expanding the comprehensive version of Medi-Cal, California’s health insurance program for low-income individuals, to all undocumented immigrants. On Jan. 1, undocumented immigrants of all ages began to qualify, affecting over 700,000 undocumented immigrants (Associated Press News). This effort will end up costing the state $3.1 billion per year, a small price to pay for the long-lasting benefits of expanding health care coverage. Providing health care for undocumented immigrants is an important milestone in the industry as it saves money for them, broadens opportunities for health care for minorities and increases welfare.
“Health care should be free for everyone and that includes undocumented immigrants,” junior Angelina Zhu said. “It is inhumane to charge people for necessities of life. Other countries have free health care and higher quality of life because of it.”
Historically, undocumented immigrants have been more reluctant to seek out health care services than non-immigrants due to higher uninsured rates, affordability challenges and linguistic and cultural barriers. Even if they are employed, they are often in lower wage industries that do not offer coverage, ultimately leading to higher uninsured rates and lower rates of private coverage (Kaiser Family Foundation). Typically, immigrants who live in California often delay taking action to gain preventative care because they are not eligible for health coverage, making it more expensive to treat them when the ailment worsens (Public Policy Institute of California). With this initiative, they will be saving money by getting treatment beforehand. Taking this step has shown citizens where California’s values of inclusion and fairness lie, emphasizing that everyone deserves the rights to basic necessities.
“It is important that [undocumented immigrants] are guaranteed somewhere to go in case of an emergency without fear of prosecution,” junior Helena Groskreutz said. “Telehealth was successful, especially during COVID-19, but it does not provide the same amount of care as an in-person doctor visit.”
Although they are often overlooked in global health care, humanitarian crises are very common and a prominent indicator of the state of global health. The United Nations (UN) has established initiatives which have successfully targeted specific diseases, like the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by tracing early contacts and vaccinating 2,000 high-risk patients (UN News). Even though the DRC is the fifth poorest nation in the world, they were able to implement immediate care to those in need. Similarly, undocumented immigrant families are a large minority in California, yet they are not receiving a comparable amount of health care services to citizens or legal immigrants. Modeling the immediate response system from the DRC’s epidemic, an effective solution would be to utilize a hybrid public-private health insurance plan available to all. This service would cover fatal illnesses by providing a range of services, including prescription drugs and diagnostic tests. For in-person visits, low-income households would receive subsidies for dental and eye care. Additionally, the majority of the population would receive vouchers to be included in a private insurance plan. France has implemented this system for almost a century now and it has proven to be one of the most efficient systems globally with high quality services (The Commonwealth Fund). Overall, global health is not possible without humanitarian health on a smaller scale, and ensuring emergency response for more people in California brings us closer to addressing the bigger issue. “More should be done on the humanitarian front to combat global health [which would] create a domino effect,” senior Rylee Izumo said. “[California] has taken a step in the right direction, but [until] there is an established system to treat those affected by famine and epidemics, [only] then can we work on universal health coverage.”
