Health care for undocumented immigrants not about politics. It’s about human rights.
My dad almost lost his ability to walk nearly five years ago. He had a degenerative form of arthritis in his hips that caused severe chronic pain whenever he moved.
As the main breadwinner of the family, that put us in a very difficult position.
My mom simply did not earn enough money as a housekeeper to keep our family afloat and, at the time, I was living in North Florida and also did not earn enough money to supplement my dad’s income.
I moved back to Miami in order to help our family and keep my dad’s small remodeling company going. We desperately searched for any sort of treatment for my father but always ran into roadblocks because he was an undocumented immigrant from Argentine and did not have health insurance.
There was no way for my dad to be treated; the system would have left my dad to wallow in his misery.
We decided to take matters into our own hands, or as conservatives usually say, “pull ourselves by our bootstraps.” We made a GoFundMe and began to fundraise for my dad’s treatment. We reached out to the media and his story began to receive coverage.
Finally by sheer luck, a former client of my dad who was an orthopedic surgeon took notice of his situation and decided to do the $90,000 double hip replacement surgery for the price of the money we had raised through GoFundMe, which was $15,000 at that point.
My story has a happy ending, but for millions of immigrants across the country, they are not so lucky. They live day to day in a society that does not acknowledge their humanity and leaves them without treatment for chronic or even terminal illnesses.
Recently, the dad of a friend of mine passed away from cancer without any sort of substantive treatment because of his lack of legal immigration status in this country.
Considering my personal experience with the brutal and barbaric way that the U.S. healthcare system treats undocumented immigrants, I must say I was surprised to see all the Democratic candidates raise their hands at last month’s presidential primary debate in Miami when asked if their plans would ensure healthcare coverage for those who are undocumented in this country.
Their response is welcomed even if it was political posturing on the part of most of the candidates who may feel they have to take a humanitarian position in the face of relentless advocacy by organizations and activists.
The Overton Window is obviously shifting on this issue, and much credit for that has to be given to candidates, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been advocating for a “Medicare for All” plan that includes the undocumented community.
Sanders took the position that undocumented folks should receive healthcare when making opening remarks at the Unity and Freedom forum hosted by the FIRM Action network, Community Change Action and CHIRLA Action Fund, and also at the NALEO forum in Miami, saying “when I talk about healthcare being a human right, last time I heard, Undocumented people are human beings too.”
If we are able to sustain a broad-based mass movement beyond an electoral victory in 2020 that removes President Donald Trump and his acolytes from the White House, we can press the new president to deliver on the promises and positions they’ve taken while campaigning.
I know this may sound naive to some, but this is how democracy is supposed to work.
This is how we will achieve meaningful reforms that benefit our communities and families, by mobilizing massive amounts of people who demand that these politicians live up to the expectations set by their voters.
This is our responsibility and mission beyond kicking Trump out of office in 2020, because when it comes to healthcare and many other issues, lives are on the line.