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Section 7.6: Health Care System

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    208211
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    Health and Healthcare System

    According to the Pew Center, in 2014 a quarter of the Latinx population did not have health insurance compared to 14% of the overall U.S. population. The disparity grows when you take into account immigration and citizenship status. For instance, for the U.S.-born Latinx population the health insurance gap with the overall U.S. population is reduced to 3 percentage points (17% to 14%, respectively) while this gap increases considerably for the foreign-born Latinx population (39% to 14%, respectively). Considering that most of the American population accesses health insurance through their employers, this gap is largely related to the occupational status of immigrant workers who are concentrated in occupations that do not provide work-related health insurance. The lack of access to healthcare is also associated with limited regular checkups, preventative medical practices, early detection of illness or disease, and overall worse health outcomes. This disparity is also evident among different age groups. For instance, 34% of the foreign-born Latinx population is uninsured compared to 12% of the U.S.-born Latinx population. These numbers show that the Latinx population, especially immigrant families, would benefit from health coverage mandates for employers or a universal health care system (Krogstad & Lopez, 2014).

    Hispanic Immigrants More Likely than U.S.-born to Lack Health Insurance 2014. The chart shows that a quarter of the Latinx population did not have health insurance compared to 14% of the overall U.S. population.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Hispanic Immigrants More Likely than U.S.-born to Lack Health Insurance 2014. (Used with permission; Pew Research Center)

    Report Findings: 


    "Suicides among non-Elderly Adult Hispanics, 2010-2020"

    LINK: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10900-022-01123-2.pdf

     

    "Transnational Motherhood: Health of Hispanic Mothers in the US who are separated from children"

    LINK:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5222880/

     

     

    Contributors and Attributions

    Works Cited

    • Gill R. & Vasquez, C. (1996). The Maria Paradox: How Latinas Can Merge Old World Traditions with New World Self-Esteem. New York: Putnam.
    • Gonzalez-Lopez, G. & Vidal-Ortiz, S. (2008). Latinas and Latinos, sexuality and society: A critical sociological perspective in Latinas/os in Rodriguez, H. et al (Eds.). 2008. The United States: Changing the Face of America. New York: Springer. p. 308-322.
    • Krogstad J.M., Gonzalez-Barrera A., & Noe-Bustamante L. (2020). U.S. Latinos among hardest hit by pay cuts, job losses due to Coronavirus. Pew Research Center.
    • Krogstad J.M. & Lopez M.H. (2014, September). Hispanic immigrants more likely to lack health insurance than U.S. born. Pew Research Center.
    • Landale N., Oropesa R., & Bradatan C. (2006) Hispanic families in the US: Family structure and process in an era of family change. in Tienda, M. & Mitchell, F. (Eds.). 2006. Hispanics and the Future of America. Washington, DC: National Academies Press
    • Light M., He J., & Robey J. (2020, December). Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
    • Myers, D. (2007). Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America. Russell Sage.
    • Educational attainment of Hispanic population in the U.S. (2019). Pew Research Center.
    • Vigdor, J. (2008). Measuring immigrant assimilation in the United States. Manhattan Institute.

    This page titled Section 7.6: Health Care System is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Carlos Ramos.

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