EthnicMajority

Several American cities have taken the unusual step of suspending trade with Arizona, in protest against the state’s controversial new immigration bill.

Councillors in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin voted to cancel official trips and stop doing business with companies based in Arizona.

After hours of grandstanding in the Los Angeles council chambers, in which members compared the statute to Nazism and the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, the resolution was approved almost unanimously.

“As an American, I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport,” said councillor Ed Reyes. “If I come across an officer who’s having a bad day and feels that the picture on my ID is not me, I can be… deported, no questions asked.”

The law proposed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer will make it a crime to lack immigration papers and will require police to stop anyone they believe to be in the country illegally. Critics argue this will lead to racial profiling, ostracise legal immigrants and foster resentment between police and the Latino community, but only the federal government has the power to deport people.

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In watching the television coverage of the staged protests at town hall meetings to discuss healthcare reform, it occurred to me that there are some noticeable faces missing from these mobs – those of people of color. While this demographic could be mistaken for the Republican party, who openly encouraged turning public discussion forums into angry shouting matches, I can’t help but think of the racial overtones in this debate (or lack thereof).

Many of the protesters expressed a common theme about why they are opposing healthcare reform. Almost all of these folks already have health insurance, private or public (Medicare), and it appears their main concern is that they will be footing the bill for covering the 50 million people who don’t.

So who are the uninsured? According to the Centers for Disease Control, 14.8% of the population is uninsured, including 19.8% of the working age adults (age 18-64). Amongst the caucasian population, only 10.5% are uninsured. This compares to 33.1% of Hispanics, 16.0% of Blacks, and 13.3% of Asians. Clearly people of color represent a disproportionately high percentage of the uninsured.

What the protesters fail to realize is that the insured bear the cost of treating the uninsured, which is substantial since they are getting treated by hospital ERs instead of neighborhood doctors. These costs are passed on to the insured in the form of increased premiums. So if you are already paying for the uninsured, wouldn’t you rather get a better bang for the buck by increasing competition amongst insurance carriers and stop using hospital ERs to treat minor illnesses?

Ethnicmajority Healthcare page.