Gaps in Coverage for Children in Immigrant Families

作者：Gabrielle Lessard, Leighton C. Ku · 发表于：The Future of Children · 年份：2003 · DOI：10.2307/1602642 · 被引用次数：65 · 研究领域：Healthcare Policy and Management、Migration, Health and Trauma、Global Health Workforce Issues

One in every five American is a member of an immigrant family. (1) Despite their substantial numbers, these are much less likely to have health insurance and ready access to health care than in native-born citizen families. Family immigration status is, in fact, one of the most important risk factors for the lack of health care coverage among in the United States. About one-third of the nation's low-income. (2) uninsured live in immigrant (see Figure 1). Almost all of these meet the income requirements for eligibility for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but for various reasons they are not enrolled. For example, some of these are ineligible for Medicaid and SCHIP because of immigrant eligibility restrictions. Many others are eligible but not enrolled because their encounter language barriers to enrollment, are confused about program rules and eligibility status, or are worried about repercussions if they use public benefits. Not only are of immigrants more likely to be uninsured and less likely to gain access to health care services than in native families, but communication barriers can also result in immigrant receiving lower-quality services. The linguistic, cultural, legal, and socioeconomic circumstances of immigrants pose special challenges and opportunities for policy officials and health care practitioners seeking to provide health care and health insurance coverage to in immigrant families. And because in immigrant constitute such a...