How Else Can Farmworkers Be Denied Health Care?
Written by Bruce Goldstein Tuesday, 21 July 2009 22:48
Now that agricultural employers are not automatically exempt from the employer mandate for the proposed new health care system (in the Senate HELP Committee bill), the question is how affordable will health care be for farmworkers?
Well, if things turn out the way they are heading, ordinary people of low and moderate income will be expected to participate in the health care system but will be offered reduced-cost fees for participation. Except that there may be an exception for both authorized immigrants and unauthorized immigrants. Most farmworkers are immigrants, and most farmworkers are poor. If they don't have the chance to participate in the new system, how will they get health care? At $12,500 to $15,000 per year in income, farmworkers can't afford most health insurance on their own, nor can they afford expensive medical treatment. So, what will happen? About 20% will make it to a government-funded health center, but they generally provide primary care. Getting to a specialist at a reasonable cost is a real challenge. And ther rest will be left t their own devices, avoiding preventing care, and going to the emergency room when disaster strikes (in which case the public pays anyway). So, what will happen? Farmworkers who are lawfully-resident immigrants will do without health care despite working for the lowest wages of any career in the second or third most dangerous occupation in the country.
Are we always going to marginalize agricultural workers? It's not over until it's over.
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