Undocumented, uninsured and the unknown
Providing care to undocumented immigrants leaves policymakers and doctors torn between financial hang-ups and a moral obligation to care for the sick.

Published: 02/09/2010
By Jessica Van Berkel

lizabeth Frost told her patient at La Clinica to go to the emergency room three times. His heart condition was serious, but the patient, an undocumented immigrant, was afraid of being deported. In the end, a visit to Regions Hospital was unavoidable.

The patient underwent a quadruple bypass, but the procedure came too late. He died three weeks after Frost’s initial warning.

The paralyzing fear of being deported is a dangerous deterrent for uninsured, undocumented immigrants in Minnesota.

The overall population of uninsured in Minnesota has increased by more than 100,000 since 2007, with immigrants twice as likely to be uninsured than the general population, according to data released by the Minnesota Department of Health on Friday.

For undocumented people and documented immigrants who have been in the United States for less than five years, affording private insurance is often impossible. They are also ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance like Medicare or General Assistance Medical Care.

Doctors say something needs to change. But public policy experts like Center for Immigration Studies Research Director Steven Camarota say the change will have to come though a far more complicated path: immigration reform, which Camarota said politicians want to touch “as much as they want to put their hand in an open flame.â€