THE RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS
With respect to access to health care services by undocumented aliens within the United States, the issue does not center on the denial of such access on the basis that an individual is an undocumented alien, but rather on the denial of free or subsidized access to health care services for undocumented aliens (Nickel, 1986, pp. 19 23). Moralists within American society contend that anyone in the country requiring health care services should have access to such services, regardless of whether such an individual can pay for the required services, and regardless of whether such an individual is in the United States under legal circumstances (Blankenau, 1993, pp. 36 39). Opponents of free health care access for undocumented aliens contend that government, both federal and state, in the United States cannot afford to fund free health care services for undocumented aliens (Chavez, 1984, pp. 20 24).
This issue is relevant to nursing and to the nation's health care delivery system for a number of interrelated reasons. First, the number of undocumented aliens residing in the United States continues to grow (Berger, 1992, p. B3). The need for health care services among the undocumented alien component of the American population, thus, is also increasing. Second, the overwhelming majority of the undocumented aliens in the United States arrive here nearly destitute and largely tend to remain in need (Capan, Beard, and Mashburn, 1993, pp. 53 55). Thus, the great majority of undocumented aliens are not going to be able to gain access to health care services by paying for such services. Third, the provision of free or subsidized health care services
to undocumented aliens restricts the funds available to provide free or subsidized health care services to indigent citizens and legal aliens in the country (Gelfand and Bialik Gilad, 1989, pp. 23 27). Funds to provide free or subsidized...