Thread: Alliances card helps illegal immigrants obtain health care

Alliances card helps illegal immigrants obtain health care
By ROSA RAMIREZ
Staff Writer

PIERSON -- It's just a 3-inch by 1 1/2-inch piece of plastic.

But for hundreds of immigrants unable to get a Florida identification card, it's literally a passport to survival because it opens the door to good health care.

"It's very difficult to get medical attention without having a form of identification that clinics will accept," said Brenda Guevara, 25, of DeLand as she waited for her turn to see a physician at a Pierson clinic.

There's nothing special about the card. It bears the person's name, address, height, weight, eye color and card expiration date.

But the meaning for those who hold it is priceless.

Emilia Garcia, 33, an immigrant from Mexico, called the card a shot at a second chance.

An agreement between a handful of health clinics and the Alianza de Mujeres Activas or Alliance of Active Women, to which Garcia belongs, is what makes the card valuable. Clinics have agreed to accept the group's membership card as a valid form of identification.

This is how it works: Illegal immigrants and people who don't have their paperwork readily available, can get a membership card from the alliance.

They do so by showing an original form of identification such as a birth certificate, a passport or an identification from another state if they just moved to Florida. They must also submit a proof of residence, such as a utility bill or lease and pay $15 fee, said Ana Bolaños, director for the Alliance.

Immigrants seeking medical assistance take the membership card, plus other documents, such as a check stub or other proof of income, to participating clinics to get a state-issued health care card. Depending on their earnings, people pay from zero to 60 percent of the normal fee for medical services, said Cheri Boyd, manager of Pierson Medical Center, one of the participating clinics. The nonprofit clinic does not ask about patients' immigration status.

Years ago, before Emilia Garcia was able to obtain a driver's license, she couldn't purchase an extended guarantee for her new big-screen television because she didn't have a driver's license number.

She felt like people noticed her only when it was convenient, for example when she spent hundreds on the television set, but never when it mattered.

"You'll never know how it feels until you've walked in their shoes," said Garcia, 33, of Pierson.

While the Alliance's agreement with clinics is seen as an accomplishment by the group, an older organization helped paved the road.

The Farmworker Association of Florida, one of the largest and well-known migrant advocacy groups in the area, has had those types of understandings with clinics and banks, said Marcos Crisanto, the Pierson office director for the association.

The association has 8,000 members across Volusia, Flagler, Putnam and Lake counties.

When Guevara was unable to renew her Texas driver's license, she obtained a Farmworker Association membership card, she said.

That was about a month ago.

"It's great. Medical care is something that people should not go without simply because they don't have an ID," Guevara said Wednesday. "Being healthy is important."

Boyd said Florida Hospital DeLand and some 55 area health care providers accept the membership card. She calculates that 40 percent of patients at Pierson Medical Center were accepted with the Farmworker Association's card.

Antonio Nava, president of the DeLand-based Hispanos Unidos de American, called the move by the clinics a "humane way" to deal with the medical needs of immigrants, including those in the country illegally.

Still, showing the organization's membership card, instead of a state-issued identification, can become the focus of the person's immigration status.

"It's a risk that authorities will know your legal status," said Nava.
http://oneoldvet.com/?p=6894
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJ ... 062008.htm

Gee, I wonder what would happen if 20 millioin Americans sauntered into Mexico demanding health care, among other things.....we would be laughed out of the country.

We are idiots for giving illegals anything.

[quote]Years ago, before Emilia Garcia was able to obtain a driver's license, she couldn't purchase an extended guarantee for her new big-screen television because she didn't have a driver's license number. [/quote]

Is this supposed to be a bad joke? WTF is going on in this country!