Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Volume 56, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 438-459

Civic Stratification and the Exclusion of Undocumented Immigrants from Cross-border Health Care (Article)

Torres J.M.* , Waldinger R.
  • a University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States
  • b University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

This paper proposes a theoretical framework and an empirical example of the relationship between the civic stratification of immigrants in the United States, and their access to healthcare. We use the 2007 Pew Hispanic Center/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Hispanic Healthcare Survey, a nationally representative survey of U.S. Latinos (N = 2,783 foreign-born respondents) and find that immigrants who are not citizens or legal permanent residents are significantly more likely to be excluded from care in both the United States and across borders. Legal-status differences in cross-border care utilization persisted after controlling for health status, insurance coverage, and other potential demographic and socioeconomic predictors of care. Exclusion from care on both sides of the border was associated with reduced rates of receiving timely preventive services. Civic stratification, and political determinants broadly speaking, should be considered alongside social determinants of population health and health care. © American Sociological Association 2015.

Author Keywords

social determinants of health Immigrant health political determinants of health civic stratification Access to care

Index Keywords

health care survey Health Care Surveys insurance human Insurance Coverage middle aged Hispanic Americans Undocumented Immigrants United States Humans undocumented immigrant Hispanic male female adult migration medical tourism Emigration and Immigration Health Services Accessibility health care delivery

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84949508757&doi=10.1177%2f0022146515610617&partnerID=40&md5=7a44bf82a1ab8fbbd647eec69e1269db

DOI: 10.1177/0022146515610617
ISSN: 00221465
Cited by: 9
Original Language: English