One undocumented immigrant’s plight to receiving eye surgery
For the past two years Ana (pseudonym), who currently resides in New Jersey, has been living with a benign growth in her right eye, which risks becoming malignant. As an undocumented immigrant, she does not qualify for health insurance or federal support. Working day-jobs at a factory and cooking “tamales” or hot meals to sell in her community, she struggles to make ends meet for her son and husband, who recently suffered a heart attack.
Ana is one of the 7.1 million undocumented immigrants who lack health insurance and are systematically denied care on the basis of inability to pay. These inequities and financial barriers have led her to endure years of suffering. She has repeatedly sought medical attention to excise the growth in her eye, but has been continuously denied access to this life-changing surgery because she cannot afford it.
Despite continuous advocacy on Ana’s behalf, our team at Quetzales de Salud, has not been able to schedule Ana’s surgery through the state-run charity program (Charity Care). Charity care is a state-wide program in New Jersey to provide coverage for hospitalizations of uninsured individuals who get admitted urgently to the hospital. It guarantees hospitals reimbursement when bound by law to provide care, but it does not cover what is considered non-urgent. The threshold for “urgent” medical care neglects to address the immediate needs of people who have medical conditions that drastically lower their quality of life and may inevitably become life-threatening if left untreated. It does not safeguard the dignity and right to health care of everyone in need of it, regardless of documentation or insurance status. For people like Ana, these policies contribute to a life-time of unmet health needs, pain and suffering.
While our team elevates the stories of people like Ana to advance comprehensive health care reform at a national level, today we face the urgent challenge of fundraising a total of $4,000 to cover Ana’s surgery. If you would like to support Ana in overcoming the financial burden to receive the surgery she desperately needs please consider donation through our Featured GoFundMe. All funds raised will go directly to Ana’s medical costs and related travel expenses.
On behalf of Ana and our team at Quetzales de Salud, we appreciate the outpouring of love, prayers and support shown over the past few weeks and undoubtedly in the months to come.
