Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Healthcare accessibility is a contentious social, political, and economic issue in the United States as the immigrant population continues to grow. Derose et al. (2009) state that the increased pace at which immigration is growing in conjunction with immigrants residing in various communities across the U.S. will continue to keep immigration as a priority topic of national debate. The American Community Survey (ACS) 2016 data reports that 43.7 million immigrants (documented and undocumented) reside in the United States, accounting for 13.5 percent of the total U.S. population of 323.1 million (Zong, Batalova, & Hallock, 2019). One in six U.S. residents is foreign-born, and currently, 16 percent of adults 18 years of age are immigrants, with the expectation of the immigrant population to grow to 19 percent by 2050 (Lopez & Radford, 2017). As the immigrant population increases, immigrants encounter multifaceted disparities that influence their access and utilization of healthcare services. According to the Kaiser Family Commission (2013), non-citizens are much more likely than citizens to have an uninsured status. Immigrants are an intricate part of society in the United States and present as socio-culturally different, and to this respect, it is vital to develop an understanding of their experiences, challenges, and behaviors within the healthcare sector. This review of the literature on immigrants’ access to healthcare provides an in-depth understanding of the perspectives, findings, gaps/limitations, and recommendations suggested within the context of immigrants’ healthcare accessibility.