COSS Faculty Research Group on Immigrant Workers in Minnesota
Brown Bag Colloquium
Wednesday, November 17, 2010: 1:15 P.M. Atwood Center: Voyageurs North
Prevention versus emergency: The use of emergency rooms
by minority and immigrant groups and the response of health
centers in Minnesota
Prof. Mónica García-Pérez (Dept.of Economics)
David Avalos, “Whats the Difference?” Herman Baca Archives, University of California, San Diego.
Immigrants living in the United States are much less likely to be insured than
natives. National and local expectations see a similar trend for future years,
even after the Health Reform mandate on compulsory health coverage for
mostly all individuals in the US. An underlying issue connected to the lack of
coverage is the intensive use of emergency rooms as a general practice by
uninsured individuals in order to have some access to health care. I intend to
analyze how the lack of insurance affects individuals’ health care access and
utilization in Minnesota. Special attention is given to immigrant and minority
groups, and how health centers respond to shifts in these target groups’
health care utilization rates, mainly by shifting their resources to greatest
cost-shaving practices, such as community clinics.