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HEALTH STATUS >
SPECIAL POPULATIONS IMMIGRANT HEALTH The immigrant population, especially newly arrived persons
and non-citizens, faces both language and cultural barriers to accessing
health care services. Of the estimated 16.6 million foreign-born
women in the U.S. in 2003, more than half (59.2 percent) were non-citizens
(including documented and undocumented immigrants).1
In 2003, women without U.S. citizenship were more likely than naturalized
citizens or women born in the U.S. to lack a usual source of care
(26.1 percent) and to lack health insurance (45.5 percent). The
percentage without insurance decreased as length of time in the
U.S. increased, although this trend was more evident among certain
racial and ethnic groups. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women
who had been in the U.S. for less than 5 years had the highest uninsurance
rates in 2003 (61.7 and 64.5 percent, respectively).Foreign-born
women were also less likely to have seen a health care professional
within the last year. A greater proportion of non-citizen women
(23.5 percent) had not seen a health professional in the past year
compared to those born in the U.S. (8.6 percent).
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1 U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Annual
Social and Economic Supplement, 2003. August 2004. http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/foreign/ppl-174/tab01-01.pdf
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