The Financial Implications of Immigrant Health Care - Case Study Example

Immigrant Latino workers experience much higher traumatic injury rates, approximately 33 percent higher than U.S. domestic workers (Molina, 2011). This is due to the fact that immigrant  Latinos are often not properly educated with specialized training and therefore are able to land only dangerous jobs in which they are often exploited by their domestic employer (Molina). In this situation, they are not being provided adequate health care insurance and thus have longer recovery times in the event of non-fatal, traumatic injury on the job. Lost productivity is one financial problem for the employer, however, their lack of health insurance makes them reliant on government-sponsored systems that strain state and federal level budgets for health provision that impacts society as a whole.

A recent California Health Interview Survey of over 9000 immigrants from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and China (among other countries) identified that approximately 13 percent of Korean youths were without health insurance (Yu, Huang & Singh, 2010). Further, many of these children had not seen a health professional within a 12 month period (Yu, et al.). What this produces is a reluctance to visit health care facilities for regular screening or treatment, thus impacting profitability levels for local physicians and clinics. At a period where there are inflated costs associated with medical equipment and service within the supply chain, this has a considerable impact in terms of the quality of local health care facilities for others in society. Again, as with other demographics, reliance on government-sponsored health care provision burdens budgets that could be devoted to domestic affairs rather than immigrant health services.

Bourgeault, Atanackovic, Rashid & Rishma (2008) offer that immigrants do not receive the same type of care as non-immigrants in the hospital system. There is a stereotype that pervades some health care environments. Offers one caregiver, “I don’t want to be close” (Bourgeault, et al., p.110). This lack of companionship further provides an incentive to negate proper health care treatment that has consequences on government-sponsored systems for avoiding preventative care and also impacts hospital profitability with lost revenues. Improper care is a major motivator for immigrant populations to avoid receiving care until their illnesses have become detrimental and therefore require more intensive treatment in the long term. This further utilizes more resources that could have been devoted to domestic citizens to provide treatment where preventative services could have taken care of the health problem in its early stages of development.