Health Care: a Scarce Luxury for Immigrant Families

The Athens Nurses clinic offers free health care to those without insurance, but is having trouble meeting an increasing demand, said Deb Williams the manager and head nurse at the clinic. Open three days a week, they treat between 30 and 35 patients on a given day, but also have to turn away an average of 15 patients because there is not enough personnel to handle the demand, Williams said.

“There was one man who begging for as much insulin as he could get,” said Everett Long, a University of Georgia graduate student who also works as an interpreter at the Athens Nurses Clinic. “He was an immigrant worker traveling back to Mexico and didn’t know how long he would be gone. I think the Nurses Clinic was the only health care he was getting.”

These facts represent a health care disparity within Clarke County that is common across the entire state, according to the Georgia Health Equity Initiative Report released earlier this year by the Georgia Department of Community Health. The report shows that even though Clarke County has better access to personal health services than other counties, minorities experience a severe disparity in life expectancy, emergency room visits and prenatal care.

Evan Mills from the Athens-Clarke County Human and Economic Development department say this is because Athens high poverty rate is most prevalent among the African-American and Hispanic populations, causing these groups to also be less likely to have health insurance, or to be able to afford regular doctor’s visits when they do have insurance.

According to the Health Disparities Report released by the Georgia Department of Community Health, Hispanics are the largest group of uninsured Georgians, at over 20 percent. Hypertension and diabetes are the most common problems seen among Athens’ Hispanic population, and can go undiagnosed for many years because many Hispanic patients skip medical checkups due to costs. Instead, they are choosing to use emergency rooms when diseases reach a crisis stage or become unbearable, Williams said.

Under federal law, emergency rooms cannot turn away anyone in need of lifesaving care, regardless of their ability to pay. John Drew, president and CEO of Athens Regional Medical Center, originally said to the Flagpole that as more uninsured people use emergency rooms for their primary care though, it is up to hospitals and doctors to absorb the costs of providing care to those who cannot pay. These costs are then passed on to patients who do have insurance, thus raising the costs for everyone.

Many immigrant workers find themselves in service industry or temporary jobs that do not offer health insurance and will often opt to cover other expenses over health care, causing many Hispanic patients to go undiagnosed, Williams said. Failing to catch diseases in the early stages often leads to chronic and nearly fatal health complications down the road, Williams said.

Emergency room and acute care are much more expensive, thus placing patients into even more dire financial situations, said Williams. She also said that Athens’ immigrant population is particularly vulnerable because they move around more and are less likely to see doctors on a regular basis.

Long said that when doctors would ask Hispanic patients why they would go for long periods of time without seeing a physician for chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, Hispanic patients would often respond with “I was in Mexico.”

“It was like they were deflecting. It seemed like not getting the care they needed was an expected part of life for them,” Long said.