Borders of Care

"Borders of Care boldly tackles the relationship between immigration and access to health care in the United States, revealing how immigrants and migrants have been both included and excluded from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Undocumented immigrants are excluded from Medicare and Medicaid and banned from participating in the Affordable Care Act. Some states offer limited coverage for undocumented children and those who are pregnant, but mostly undocumented immigrants must rely on emergency rooms or clinics that don't ask about citizenship status. Many receive no care at all. Yet immigrants haven't always been ostracized from health care in the US--providers and activists have for over a century worked to make medical services available to immigrants and migrants, including, at times, the undocumented. By featuring the role played by immigrants and migrants themselves, and especially their part in movements to define health care as a human right, Borders of Care tells the complete story of immigrants and US health care, and the consequences are tremendous. By analyzing both the health and immigration systems and how they work (or fail to work) together, Beatrix Hoffman adds to our understanding of why these systems, and the policies that support them, have been resistant to reform. As she shows, immigrant and migrant health care activism in the US has brought about an expansion of public health institutions and patient rights, ultimately leading to greater access for all. Aspects of the US health system that have hurt immigrants-limitations and exclusions based on race, income, employment, language, and residency, and other types of rationing-have also hurt everyone. This history helps to explain why so many Americans still struggle to obtain and pay for health care today, regardless of citizenship status"--