Illegal farm Workers Get Health Care in Shadows

This article is about what illegal immigrants do for health care. One-half to two-thirds of illegal immigrants do not have health insurance so they use a number of different sources. Most common is the use of curanderas or healers who use herbs and incantations. The people use the healers because it is mostly for common sicknesses or pains and it is significantly cheaper than going to a doctor. On curandera, Herminia L. Arenas, gets her inspiration for healing through anything, even watching egg yolks separate. While these remedies seem unsafe, they can help relieve pain and the immigrants have full trust in her. Immigrants also go to Mexico where they can receive cheap pharmaceuticals that will last throughout the next year. Contrary to popular belief, they only go to the emergency room when it is necessary. Once illegal immigrants move to the United States, they often suffer from common diseases like diabetes, obesity and asthma.
I think that it is interesting how the illegal immigrants use healers with such trust. This article showed a different side of the health care issue because I never thought about what illegal immigrants did. What was also interesting to me was that immigrants will use their same remedies even if we get universal health care because these plans are for citizens. We assume that everyone will have health care if we implement universal health care, but illegal immigrants will probably continue on with the curanderas.

Sack, Kevin. 'Illegal Farm Workers Get Health Care in Shadows.' nytimes.com. May 10, 2008.<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/us/10migrant.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1211257363-xeN%20Quus69iYgbwIzWRHAg>