Brown Henry Shelton
Department of Management Policy and Community Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Austin, TX 78701, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2008 Dec;67(12):2036-42. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.014. Epub 2008 Oct 23.
Although language and culture are important contributors to uninsurance among immigrants, one important contributor may have been overlooked - the ability of immigrants to return to their home country for health care. This paper examines the extent to which uninsurance (private insurance and Medicaid) is related to the ability of immigrants to return to Mexico for health care, as measured by spatial proximity. The data for this study are from the Mexican Migration Project. After controlling for household income, acculturation and demographic characteristics, arc distance to the place of origin plays a role in explaining uninsurance rates. Distance within Mexico is quite important, indicating that immigrants from the South of Mexico are more likely to seek care in their communities of origin (hometowns).
尽管语言和文化是导致移民未参保的重要因素，但一个重要因素可能被忽视了——移民回国接受医疗保健的能力。本文研究了未参保（私人保险和医疗补助）与移民回国到墨西哥接受医疗保健能力之间的关联程度，这一能力通过空间距离来衡量。本研究的数据来自墨西哥移民项目。在控制了家庭收入、文化适应和人口特征之后，到原籍地的直线距离在解释未参保率方面发挥了作用。墨西哥境内的距离相当重要，这表明来自墨西哥南部的移民更有可能在其原籍社区（家乡）寻求医疗服务。
