Berk M L, Schur C L
Project HOPE Centre for Health Affairs, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA.
J Immigr Health. 2001 Jul;3(3):151-6. doi: 10.1023/A:1011389105821.
The passage of California's Proposition 187 in 1994 intensified debate over health care access for the undocumented population. Under Proposition 187, physicians would have been required to report the undocumented immigrants to immigration authorities. Even before 187, some undocumented may have been wary to come in contact with the medical care system. This paper examines whether concerns about one's immigration status serves as a deterrent to seeking care. These concerns may be resurfacing, with changes under the 1996 welfare reform legislation and related amendments that affect eligibility of non-citizen immigrants for public programs and states' ability to provide care to undocumented immigrants. Therefore, representative in-person surveys of undocumented Latinos were conducted in Houston, El Paso, Fresno, and Los Angeles in neighborhoods with significant concentrations of Latinos. It was found that 39% of the undocumented adult immigrants expressed fear about receiving medical services because of undocumented status. Those reporting fear were likelier to report inability acquiring medical and dental care, prescription drugs, and eyeglasses. Hence it can be concluded that concern about immigration status decreases the likelihood of receiving care.
1994年加利福尼亚州第187号提案的通过加剧了关于无证人口医疗保健问题的辩论。根据第187号提案，医生将被要求向移民当局报告无证移民。甚至在第187号提案之前，一些无证者可能就对接触医疗保健系统心存顾虑。本文探讨了对自身移民身份的担忧是否会成为寻求医疗服务的阻碍。随着1996年福利改革立法及相关修正案的变化，这些担忧可能再次出现，这些变化影响了非公民移民参与公共项目的资格以及各州为无证移民提供医疗服务的能力。因此，在休斯顿、埃尔帕索、弗雷斯诺和洛杉矶的拉丁裔聚居区对无证拉丁裔进行了具有代表性的面对面调查。结果发现，39%的无证成年移民因无证身份而对接受医疗服务表示担忧。那些表示担忧的人更有可能报告无法获得医疗和牙科护理、处方药及眼镜。因此可以得出结论，对移民身份的担忧会降低接受医疗服务的可能性。
