Immigrants’ health practices are influenced by cultural traditions, religious, and ethnic beliefs and sought primarily to folk healers, folk remedies, and turn to ethnomedical approaches to treat culture-bound syndromes. Murguía, Paterson, and Zea (2003) reveal that all of the 76 Central American participants in the Ethnomedical Approach Checklist claimed to have consulted or recommended the use of at least one of the healers such as curanderos …show more content…
Kalil and Ziol-Guest (2012) analyze data from Survey of Income and Program Participants spanning from 1996-2009 to investigate children’s physical health, dental visits, and doctor contract among low-income children of immigrant families versus those of US-born households. The results are consistent with Kalil and Ziol-Guests (2012) hypothesis that families with noncitizen members face barriers, real or perceived, to using relevant programs. Central American immigrants are likely to work in service occupations and less likely to have the option of employer-based health insurance. Derose, Escarce, and Lurle (2007) state that public systems in rural areas with higher number of immigrants are less equipped to achieve high levels of performance. Interpretation is important, language barriers can impact the way a patient understands his or her medical diagnostic and can fail to comply with physician’s instructions. In addition, physicians are moving their offices away from urban areas to wealthy areas to avoid publicly funded patients and seek to attract private insurers. Immigrants are likely to be poor, less educated, and are restricted to access to public resources than US-born citizens which results in poor quality of service.
Immigrants incur a small share of medical expenditures than US-born citizens. Immigrants seek alternative ethnomedical approaches to health care practices, are restricted from public services due to legal status, lack socioeconomic and societal resources. This literature review intends to investigate the disparities among immigrant groups and access to medical insurance and health care due to factors such as cultural practices, legal status, and socioeconomic