Chattanooga: 27% of Hispanics in U.S. lack regular health care provider

Although Andres Ramirez didn’t visit the doctor very often when he lived in Mexico, he now goes to the Chattanooga Homeless Health Care Clinic at least once every three months to treat his diabetes.

“Part of it is our culture,” said the 35-year-old, who has lived in the United States for 14 years. “We are not used to going to the doctor unless we feel very sick.

“As Hispanics, we don’t go to the doctor regularly because most of the time we come here to work and we say we don’t have time for the doctor,” he said. “Which shouldn’t be the case. We need to take care of ourselves more.”

Twenty-seven percent of Hispanic adults in the United States — 30 percent in the South — lack a regular health care provider, according to a report released today by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Similar to the general U.S. population, Hispanic males, the young and the less educated are less likely to have primary health care providers, according to the report, “Hispanics and Health Care in the United States: Access, Information and Knowledge.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously reported that, compared to other groups, Hispanics are twice as likely as non-Hispanic blacks and three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to lack regular health care providers.

“When it comes to Latinos, what may appear to be the well-known effects of socioeconomic inequality on health care may also be conditioned by unique social, cultural and economic circumstances confronting both Hispanic immigrants and Hispanics born in the United States,” the report said.

The Hispanic population in the United States has more than doubled in the past 15 years and is now estimated to have reached 45 million, said Debra Perez, senior program officer for the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an organization whose stated goal is to improve American health care.

“If we are going to design effective public health approaches in the future, it’s critical that we understand how Hispanics use health resources and where they turn for health information they trust,” she said.

About 41 percent of those surveyed who lack a regular health care provider said the principal reason is because “they are seldom sick.”

The hardest part is to get Hispanics to go to the doctor for the first time, said Sylvia Rangel, a community health worker who works with the Hispanic population in Chattanooga.

“Once they go and find a place they like, they generally continue to go,” she said.

Rogelina Garcia, a native of Mexico, said she doesn’t go to the doctor as often because of the language barrier and lack of money.

“Back in Mexico I would go often because the doctors spoke my language,” she said, speaking in Spanish. “Here, sometimes there’s not an interpreter available, and it is hard to explain what’s wrong.

“There’s also the factor of health insurance. It’s really expensive to go to the doctor and, if you don’t even have a job, how are you going to pay for medical care?” she asked.

About 42 percent of the Latinos who don’t have health insurance lack a usual health care provider, compared with 19 percent of the insured, the survey found.

Angela Mejias, certified nurse practitioner with the Southside and Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers, affiliates of the Erlanger health system, said immigration status also affects whether a person goes to the doctor.

“For the most part, if they are illegal immigrants, because of fear of immigration (authorities) they tend not to seek medical health,” she said. “They use home remedies (first).”

Although the number of Hispanic patients is increasing locally, the access to care for Hispanics continues to be limited, said Karen Guinn, primary care program manager with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department.

“What we know is that access to care for Hispanics is often minimal because all of our Hispanic clients are uninsured, so it can be difficult to pay for care,” she said.

Ms. Mejias said there’s a need for health care providers to reach out to the Hispanic community.

“Some of the Hispanic patients I’ve seen haven’t seen a medical provider for years, a lot of them since they left their country,” she said.

Illegal Alien by the band, Genesis

Got out of bed, wasn’t feeling too good
With my wallet and my passport, a new pair of shoes
The sun is shining so I head for the park,
With a bottle of Tequila, and a new pack of cigarettes

I got a cousin and she got a friend,
Who thought that her aunt knew a man who could help
At his apartment I knocked on the door,
He wouldn’t come out until he got paid.
Now don’t tell anybody what I wanna do
If they find out you know that they’ll never let me through, cos

It’s no fun being an illegal alien, no
It’s no fun being an illegal alien

Down at the office had to fill out the forms
A pink one, a red one, the colours you choose,
Up to the counter to see what they think
They said “it doesn’t count man, it ain’t written in ink”.
I don’t trust anybody, least not around here, cos

It’s no fun being an illegal alien, I tell ya
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, no no no no no
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, I mean it when I tell ya that
It’s no fun being an illegal alien,
An illegal alien, O.K.

Consideration for your fellow man
Would not hurt anybody, it sure fits in with my plan
Over the border, there lies the promised land
Where everything comes easy, you just hold out your hand

Keep your suspicions, I’ve seen that look before
But I ain’t done nothing wrong now, is that such a suprise
But I’ve got a sister who’d be willing to oblige
She will do anything now to help me get to the outside

So don’t tell anybody what I wanna do
If they find out you know that they’ll never let me through, because

It’s no fun being an illegal alien, I tell ya
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, and it’s getting me down
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, no no no no no
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, yeah yeah yeah

It’s no fun (not much fun) being an illegal alien, I tell ya that
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, I tell ya
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, no no no
It’s no fun (not bloody much fun) being an illegal alien,
It’s no fun being an illegal alien, and that’s what I am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7q1H3VKdp0

And what is it that happened exactly fifteen years ago? NAFTA did exactly what opponents said it would do. But its advocates said it would DECREASE illegal immigration. And those same folks are advocating more “free trade” agreements, using the same old lies.

Illegal immigration plays a role, but it is our pro-population growth legal immigration policies and the Hispanic birth rate that are the main causes for the increase in population.

Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought to be First World levels of illegitimacy. (In fact, family breakdown is higher in many Hispanic countries than here.) Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.

The dimensions of the Hispanic baby boom are startling. The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio. In states such as California and Texas, Hispanics will be in the clear majority. Nationally, whites will drop from near 70 percent of the total population in 2000 to just half by 2050. Hispanics will account for 46 percent of the nation’s added population over the next two decades, the Pew Hispanic Center reports.

But it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Every 1,000 unmarried Hispanic women bore 92 children in 2003 (the latest year for which data exist), compared with 28 children for every 1,000 unmarried white women, 22 for every 1,000 unmarried Asian women, and 66 for every 1,000 unmarried black women. Forty-five percent of all Hispanic births occur outside of marriage, compared with 24 percent of white births and 15 percent of Asian births. Only the percentage of black out-of-wedlock births—68 percent—exceeds the Hispanic rate. But the black population is not going to triple over the next few decades.

As if the unmarried Hispanic birthrate weren’t worrisome enough, it is increasing faster than among other groups. It jumped 5 percent from 2002 to 2003, whereas the rate for other unmarried women remained flat. Couple the high and increasing illegitimacy rate of Hispanics with their higher overall fertility rate, and you have a recipe for unstoppable family breakdown.

The only bright news in this demographic disaster story concerns teen births. Overall teen childbearing in the U.S. declined for the 12th year in a row in 2003, having dropped by more than a third since 1991. Yet even here, Hispanics remain a cause for concern. The rate of childbirth for Mexican teenagers, who come from by far the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population, greatly outstrips every other group. The Mexican teen birthrate is 93 births per every 1,000 girls, compared with 27 births for every 1,000 white girls, 17 births for every 1,000 Asian girls, and 65 births for every 1,000 black girls. To put these numbers into international perspective, Japan’s teen birthrate is 3.9, Italy’s is 6.9, and France’s is 10. Even though the outsize U.S. teen birthrate is dropping, it continues to inflict unnecessary costs on the country, to which Hispanics contribute disproportionately.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.