A migrant farm worker from Mexico picks spinach in northeast Colorado. The mobile clinic in the background travels to farms throughout the region to serve the migrant population, most of whom are immigrants with little other access to basic health care. Read the demographics issue brief »A medical student takes the pulse of a woman inside a healthcare clinic for migrant farm workers in Connecticut. There are an estimated 3.5 million migrant and seasonal farm workers in the United States.Read the health care issue brief »Except for some emergency care, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for most federally-funded health insurance programs. Their access to health care is shaped by several policies and pro­grams at the federal state and local level.Read the policy issue brief »

Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care in the United States

When they get sick, more than 11 mil­lion res­i­dents of the United States con­front two flawed sys­tems: immi­gra­tion and health care. Through this research project, The Hast­ings Cen­ter is explor­ing the con­se­quences of exclud­ing undoc­u­mented immi­grants and migrants from obtain­ing health insur­ance under the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act of 2010 and the con­tin­u­ing exclu­sion of this pop­u­la­tion from Med­ic­aid cov­er­age and most other enti­tle­ment programs.