Thread: PA: Immigrant kids less likely to have health insurance DUH!

Public release date: 22-Sep-2008
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Contact: Juliann Walsh
walshj1@email.chop.edu
267-426-6054
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Immigrant children are increasingly more likely to lack health coverage

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22, 2008 – Contrary to public perceptions, foreign-born children are increasingly uninsured, rather than publicly insured, in the wake of immigration policy changes, according to a study by public health researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Despite a 1999 federal ruling that relieved immigrant families of a requirement to repay the U.S. government for Medicaid benefits, immigrant children did not increase their usage of publicly funded health insurance programs. The study authors said that these inequities in access to health care may hinder the ability of immigrant children to become productive future members of the American labor force.

Even after taking into account significant socioeconomic differences between U.S.-born and foreign-born children, the vast majority of immigrant children are much more likely to be uninsured, living in poverty, and have parents with less than a high school education, according to the study. The results, based on the analysis of data collected from 33,317 children for the 1997 to 2004 National Health Interview Survey, appear in the November 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

"The large number of uninsured foreign-born children raises concerns about their long- term health and functional outcomes because regular health care supervision is critical to achieve optimal growth and development," said study author Susmita Pati, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatrician and child health services researcher at Children's Hospital and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. "The cost of providing preventive primary care to children is relatively small when compared to other health care costs."

Some have argued that uninsured immigrants may strain the resources of publicly funded health care systems by using expensive emergency care or because their treatment has been delayed. The study looked at data over the seven-year period to determine if foreign-born children were increasingly reliant on public health insurance programs after the 1999 reversal of the so-called "public charge rule."

The public charge rule of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 initially required families to repay the U.S. government for public health benefits, including Medicaid, previously received at no cost. In 1999, the government specified that Medicaid benefits would be exempted from the public charge rule.

According to the study results, low-income U.S.-born children were just as likely as foreign-born children to have public insurance coverage. After 2000, foreign-born children were 1.59 times more likely than U.S.-born children to be uninsured versus publicly insured. Therefore, children were less likely to participate in public insurance programs after reversal of the public charge rule. Less than one-third of foreign-born children were publicly insured compared to more than 40 percent of U.S. children during this time.

One of every five children in the U.S. is a member of an immigrant family, according to the 2000 U.S. census. Immigrant families are complex in that parents and children may each have different immigration status, and since children rely on their parents to obtain the necessary health benefits, that may have an impact on child health outcomes. Federal, state and local policies can promote or hinder insurance coverage for immigrants.

"Policies designed to promote the healthy growth of this highly underserved population merit serious consideration, given their potential to ensure the future socioeconomic well-being of an increasingly diverse American population," Pati said.

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Shooshan Danagoulian, formerly a research assistant at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, contributed to the study.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 092208.php

Originally Posted by legalatina

Public release date: 22-Sep-2008
[ Print Article | E-mail Article | Close Window ]

Contact: Juliann Walsh
walshj1@email.chop.edu
267-426-6054
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Immigrant children are increasingly more likely to lack health coverage

And... drumroll please... Our American tax-paying citizens will be more than happy to bail them out!

Related post on I-9s:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-131673-i9s.html
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THis is just another plea to get SCHIP to include illegal alien children...via taxpayer funded low-cost health insurance for poor children. The bottom line is ....AMerican families shouldn't have to subsidize any kind of free public health care or public health insurance for illegal aliens of any age. Illegal aliens can seek medical care but they must be made to pay for it of their own means or they can buy their own health insurance.

What makes me sick is that a new Ronald McDonald House opened up last year....and guess what? Two illegal alien families were there ...they told a reporter they liked that it was like a "5 star hotel" and complained that the food wasn't "hispanic" food like at home. Makes me sick....meanwhile a friend of mine whose toddler is dying of cancer was there just a few days b/c she lives too far away from the Children's hospital to commute back/forth everyday. My friend felt a little uneasy about staying there but she couldn't afford to stay in downtown Philly hotels for such an extended period of time. She was glad to stay at RMH and unlike, the illegal aliens she donated money and resources to RMH after her stay and many of her friends did so as well.

I will not donate to McDonald House anymore.

The sad thing here is the fact they don't need health insurance anyway. Illegals know they can go to any hospital and not be denied healthcare. This is why they use the emergency rooms for their PCP.

This writer should do a little more research on how many hospitals have gone bankrupt in the past decade due to this problem, especially along the border states.

the vast majority of immigrant children are much more likely to be uninsured, living in poverty, and have parents with less than a high school education,

Not immigrant children.......ILLEGAL ALIEN children. But not here in Illinois........they have it for them, on my dime and I don't even have any.