Sustaining a House of Cards: The Health Care of Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in the United States

Undocumented immigrants in the United States (and arguably elsewhere) live in a precarious situation, lacking both the benefits of legitimacy due to their immigration status (legal exclusion) and the security of having labor rights, such as adequate working conditions, working hours, and pay (economic exclusion). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which passed on March 23, 2010, became yet another policy following the historical trend of restricting and limiting the health care of undocumented immigrants in the United States. In this thesis, I utilize a biopolitical framework to understand why the United States continues to restrict health care access to this population. I focus my analysis on undocumented Mexican immigrants because they are often blamed for the increasing costs of health care. I assess current perceptions and misconceptions of undocumented Mexican immigrants' use of health care. I examine how ambiguity in the United States' medical culture and tension from "bare minimum" health care manifests in the challenges undocumented Mexican immigrants and their health care providers face in Lawrence, Kansas. I argue that the United States should rethink fee-for-service health care with regard to undocumented immigrants because they cannot afford to participate. By not acknowledging this problem, the United States continues to control undocumented immigrants' bodies, keeping them subjugated through economic and legal exclusion.