FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Sayed Rahman, a student from Bangladesh, has learned that health care in the USA can be expensive. He has had to pay high fees, sometimes $500, he says, to see a doctor when he is sick.
"Health care is a big thing," says Rahman, 21, as he looks over a pamphlet for low-cost health insurance at a health care fair last month at Pimmit Hills High School, an alternative school for recent immigrants ages 19 to 25. Insurance is "a good thing to have. Right now, the economy is down, so it's the main thing I am looking for."
Pimmit Hills hosts the annual fair to inform students, many of whom are married with children, about low-cost or free health care options available to the area's expanding immigrant population. Included are a vision van, blood pressure testing, dentists, nutritionists and health insurance companies.
"Most of these folks do not know the system," says assistant principal Bud Mayo. "They get lost in the bureaucracy."
The U.S. health care system does not sufficiently cater to immigrants, says Sapna Pandya of New York University's Center for Immigrant Health. They may not know what programs they are eligible for or even be able to find a medical professional who can speak their language.
"When you call these numbers, let's say for Medicaid, you might get Spanish at the very best, but that's about it," she says. "And with hundreds of other languages that these immigrants speak, you don't have all of those covered."
The center participates in health programs, such as tuberculosis testing at houses of worship and community centers in high-immigrant areas of New York City. Pandya says government should work to aid immigrants without checking their legal status because they pay sales taxes and, in many cases, payroll and income taxes.
Programs that inform immigrants about health care are difficult to establish and maintain, says Liany Arroyo, director of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza. Many immigrants hesitate to sign up or share their contact information. Whether to use scarce government money for programs that may help undocumented immigrants is a hot political debate.
"Funding is limited all around," Arroyo says. "Given the state of the economy, a lot of our cities and states are cutting back, so it becomes less popular to create these programs."
But cutting health care, regardless of the recipient, is dangerous, she says. "Disease knows no boundaries. We really risk not being able to contain epidemics in the future."
Didi Crowder, fair organizer and retired career-development coordinator for the school, has driven students to the dentist in emergencies. She wrote a grant to get free eyeglasses for students with vision problems.
Crowder says she realized the severity of the students' medical problems after she distributed a survey in 2006. Out of 181 students surveyed, 63 said they had ailments that needed immediate attention. And 70 of 100 screened for vision problems needed glasses, she says.
Halimo Yasin and Faraiya Ismail, 22-year-old Somalian students, say they learned they needed glasses from the fair's vision van. Yasin holds up a $25 certificate to the dentist and says she plans to get her teeth cleaned.
"A lot of the students don't know what they can do, so it's helpful," Yasin says.
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