31
Mexican immigrantswith low incomes
aremore likely to lackhealth insurance
Mexican and Central American immigrants with low
incomesare thegroupsmost lacking inhealth insurance
coverage: over sixoutof tenareuninsured. This isover
twice theproportionof immigrants fromother regions
and three times that of non-Hispanic US-born whi-
tes and African Americans. This disadvantage among
low-wage Mexican and Central American immigrants
has remainedstableduring theperiodanalyzed (Figure
17). In a context of economic precariousness and ex-
clusion from the health care system, these lowwage
immigrantswill faceseverebarriers toobtaininghealth
serviceswhen theyneed it.
Constructionworkers are theMexican
immigrantswith the least protection
Employment in construction, agriculture and unskilled
services, sectors which employ Mexican immigrants
at a high rate, is related to lackof protection in terms
of health insurance coverage. Indeed, 72% of Mexi-
can constructionworkers and 66% of those engaged
in agriculture and unskilled service jobs do not have
health insurance, according to data for 2013 (Figure
18). This is alarming, as figures from theDepartment
of Labor of theUnitedStates show that the construc-
tion sector had the highest number of fatal accidents
in 2012, while agriculture, forestry, fishing and hun-
ting showed the highest rate of non-fatal work acci-
Note:
1/Incomeunder 150%of the federal poverty line for theUnitedStates.
Source: Migration Policy Bureau, SEGOB, based on U.S. Census Bureau,
Current Population Survey
(CPS), for March
2004and2013. IntegratedPublicUseMicrodataSeries (IPUMS)USA,Minneapolis: UniversityofMinnesota.
Figure17. Low-incomepopulation
1
in theUnitedStateswithout health insurance
by regionof originandethnicityor race, 2004and2013
chapter i i •
access to health insurance and service use
