Anti-immigrant hysteria blocks black access to health care

By denying health care to the undocumented, the U.S. House of Representatives has unwittingly put blacks at risk.

Under the House health care bill, millions of blacks could potentially be denied federal payments for affordability credits. These credits enable individuals to get subsidized health care if they are under 400 percent of the federal poverty line. Such subsidies do not apply, however, to anyone who is not “lawfully present” in the United States.

But 8.9 percent (or roughly 2 million) of all blacks in the United States do not have a Social Security card, driver’s license, passport, birth certificate or other proof of naturalization. As a result, they could be excluded from accessing federal affordability credits for health care.

A 2006 study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that blacks were more than three times as likely as whites to lack a government-issued photo ID, with one in four blacks possessing no such ID. In 2006, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities highlighted that 8.9 percent — roughly 2 million blacks — don’t have a Social Security card, driver’s license, passport, birth certificate or proof of naturalization.

Part of the problem dates back to the days of Jim Crow, when white hospitals were barred from delivering black babies. In 1950, Sam Shapiro, now emeritus professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, conducted a case study for the journal Population Studies and found that one-fifth of blacks born from 1939-40 were never issued birth certificates.

Jim Crow hospitals did not disappear from some areas of the country until the 1970s. So, many blacks don’t have birth certificates through no fault of their own. They shouldn’t be penalized by losing health care subsidies.

What’s more, excluding these blacks and undocumented immigrants from health care reform puts public health at risk and ends up costing the system more money. Preventive care — rather than expensive trips to the emergency room — is what would save taxpayers’ money in the long run, despite the ill wishes of anti-immigrant zealots.

But to get that care, people must be able to afford their premiums.

The phrase “first, do no harm” is often attributed to the Hippocratic Oath that doctors swear to before practicing medicine on patients. Congress would be doing harm by excluding anyone from health care.

Eric Ward, the national field director for the Center for New Community, writes for the Web site Imagine 2050. He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.