Introduction
The United States of America is one of the leading economies in the world; there are top notch facilities in the country. The health care facilities provided in the country have many flaws and this is because of the illegal immigration and other factors which affect the overall quality of healthcare in the country. This paper will throw light upon the flaws in the US healthcare, one of the biggest challenges that the country is facing is without a doubt illegal immigration, the same has taken the cost of health care to a higher level, all these factors will be discussed in the paper; a conclusion will be arrived at in the end which will answer the question.
Illegal Immigration and its impact on Healthcare in the USA
Every year millions of people sneak ill legally into another country by crossing the borderline, this is very common in United States of America. This is called ill legal Immigration, in other words, people who do not have work permit or any kind of permission from the government to come and stay in that particular country. The same affects the health facilities in the country and negatively impacts the overall healthcare facilities in the USA.
“Each year the Border Patrol is making more than a million apprehensions of people who flagrantly violate our nation’s laws by unlawfully crossing U.S. borders to work and to receive publicly-funded services, often with the aid of fraudulent documents. Such entry is a misdemeanor and, if repeated, becomes punishable as a felony. Over eight million illegal immigrants live in the United States — some estimate even more.” (American Patrol, 18 January 2009).
Research has found that ill legal immigration affects the citizens of that particular country, especially the poor people and the legal immigrants. It is also found that the taxes paid by these illegal immigrants are far less than the services received by them. Countries like United States of America are trying their level best to counter this by increasing border patrol but this is not only reason for illegal immigration, most of the cases occur because of people who overstay even after their visa is expired. United States of America provides Medicaid facilities to the legal and illegal immigrants but this results in a very big loss for the economy of the country because the people take undue advantage of the same by overstaying in the hospitals even after recovery.
The Medicaid policies depend on state to state but there are some states in America which provide the young children and elders requiring medical attention with great facilities like free drugs, free nursing and proper medical attention.
Off late the federal law has brought in many restrictions to keep a check on the illegal immigrants, this also ensures a strict check on the money spent on the public welfare. Some of the services provided by Medicaid to the people are Vaccine for the children, rural health care services, transportation services and these are just a handful of many services provided by the Medicaid in America.
The funding of these services provided by the states comes from a partnership between the federal and the state government and this was established in the year 1965, this comes under the social security act. “States with lower per capita income get more government money, those with higher get less. This Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in 2000 paid 76.8% of all Medicaid in Mississippi, 70 % in the District of Columbia, and 59.8% in Alaska. Alaska’s FMAP increased markedly in 2005. The federal government also reimburses states for Medicaid administration and Indian Health Service facilities. (Medicaid, 18 January 2009)
Conclusion
The Immigration rate in the US is so high that the country can’t quite ignore the interest of the people, even though the deaths in the US are constantly increasing; understandably, the country cannot stop spending on further development of healthcare services. Immigration remains one of the biggest challenges for the US to face. Immigration has taken the cost of healthcare to another level and it is high time to restrict any such wastage and to make use of the same in a better manner.
References
American Patrol. In American patrol. Web.
Medicaid. In News with views. Web.