The heated debate surrounding immigration reform reaches into almost every aspect of American life. Yet no issue is more decisive than the affect new immigration legislation will have on healthcare.
Currently, the Obama administration’s commitment to legalize an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants is making the rounds through Capitol Hill. But the main question on politician’s minds is if the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) provisions should extend to this swarm of new residents.
Under its current draft, Senate Bill 744 would slowly open the door for registered provisional immigrants (RPIs) to qualify for public health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. However, while Obama’s plan would have immigrants wait eight years before qualifying for health benefits, a Congressional plan headed by Republican senators Marco Rubio and John McCain pushes the wait to at least a decade.
Experts predict that both situations would create a provisional period in which even wider disparities will develop between the haves and have-nots of health insurance.
It’s my opinion that including these prospective Americans into our health system even sooner would prove beneficial for public health, practice revenues, and the increasing physician shortage.
A Healthier Population
The truth is we already subsidize undocumented immigrant healthcare under Medicaid by mandating treatment during life-saving emergency room visits. Historically, such treatments are much more expensive than primary and preventative care services, which most undocumented immigrants do not seek due to lack of coverage. This creates a snowball effect, which raises health care costs for everybody by producing more unhealthy people.
If health reform works as intended, there will not only be a boost in the number of new people covered but a steady improvement in population health. Extending Obamacare to the incoming 11 million RPIs would further this endeavor and, in theory, drastically reduce the number of publically funded emergency room visits.
Also, if we wait a decade before offering health coverage to RPIs, there is also a fear that down the road as immigrants do become eligible for coverage, they’ll be older, sicker, and require more expensive care. This is another good reason not to wait to expand coverage.
Increased Revenue
We don’t need help from Russel Crowe’s character in A Beautiful Mind to figure out that adding 11 million people to the healthcare system would increase the number of patients providers treat every day.
If properly equipped, this could mean a drastic boost in the physician revenue cycle. While some providers are dreading the influx of millions of new patients because of the ACA, many are implementing procedures now that will allow them to treat more patients later.
Incorporating new technologies into your practice like a cloud-based PM system or EHR will ensure you’re at the forefront of patient care. Web-based solutions streamline your workflow and allow you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time treating patients.
Addressing The Physician Shortage
Certain provisions of the immigration reform bill would also make it easier for foreign doctors to enter the country.
Each year, each state is granted a limited amount of visa waivers. The proposed bill allots more visas per state for foreign-born doctors and med-school students on student visas.
Additional waivers would make it possible for physician immigrants to bypass the two-year residence requirement, should the doctor in question be willing to supplement a field that is experiencing a shortage, such as emergency room staffing.
Immigration reform would allow more foreign-born doctors to enter the U.S. and let foreign medical students already studying here stay and work in the country.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the overall doctor shortage is expected to reach 90,000 by 2020, due to a growing and aging population. Facilitating the process for foreign-born doctors to practice in U.S. could address this shortage, and help alleviate the estimated 36% rise in the number of U.S. citizens over the age of 65 in the coming years.
In the end, by rejecting legal residents’ right to a healthy life aren’t we categorizing them as second-class citizens? I don’t think this is the message we want to send to an undeniable force of incoming Americans.
Stay tuned Friday for my colleague Salvador Lopez’s rebuttal on the issue. Until then, sign up for our newsletter today.
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