Marlyn Aguirre
Kristy Borowicz
Carrie "Shellie" Cobbs
Jessica Wilson
Economics: The Financing of Health Care
HCS 440
George Atkins
December 08, 2013
Health Care Reform Project, Part I
Health care in the United States is a complex business that is always changing because of many factors such as new technology, insurance changes, and currently state involvement. The United States has the highest cost of health care in the world because of many factors such as technology, reimbursement from insurance companies and covering the uninsured patient. One class of uninsured patients is illegal immigrants in the United States that are accessing the health care system. There is debate that illegal immigrants come into the United States with the sole purpose of accessing the health care system through the emergency department (ED) at hospitals because they do not have access to the level of health care in their own country. When illegal …show more content…
On the opposite side of the debate, the cost of illegal immigrants accessing health care in the United States is lower than the average cost of an insured American citizen because of the costs of testing and procedures performed. Illegal immigrants only accessing care in the ED incur higher costs per visit but visit less often. Illegal immigrants receive fewer tests than insured patients needing multiple tests do and follow-up care visit. Therefore incurring less cost overall to the health care system. The cost of covering the illegal immigrant who incurs charges in the health care system but does not pay affects the economy of the health care industry. The costs of treating the