By Catalina Cruz & Nathalia Fernandez
Think about that at some point you get up with a slight cough. Pondering it’s a chilly or allergic reactions, you are taking over-the-counter cough drugs, cough drops, and even at-home cures. 5 months later, nothing appears to be working and, at your spouse’s urging, you lastly go to the physician. He runs a number of checks and some weeks later you get a name to return again to the workplace. The physician has devastating information: “Miguel, you may have Stage 4 lung most cancers and also you want a lung transplant.”
However there’s hope – a transplant might save your life. You might be solely 36 and in any other case wholesome; you may have a son who simply turned 7, a loving and glad marriage, and a lot to dwell for.
However you’re additionally undocumented, so except you may give you almost one million {dollars}, you don’t qualify to be on an organ donation listing and you’ll not get this life-saving transplant.
We’d like to consider New York as an inclusive beacon of hope and humanity, however we’re failing one in every of our most susceptible populations — our undocumented immigrants. We do not need a healthcare coverage that covers each New Yorker.
The emergency Medicaid program covers pressing conditions for undocumented immigrants, like a tracheotomy process or an emergency C-section, however doesn’t cowl organ transplants. Notably, nonetheless, undocumented individuals can donate organs. Which means that though they’ll donate an organ to save lots of another person’s life, if their very own life relies on a coronary heart, lung, or kidney transplant, they’re left to die.
Undocumented individuals shouldn’t be handed a loss of life sentence when an organ fails just because they lack a chunk of paper and a social safety quantity.
Miguel’s story, whereas heartbreaking, occurs extra typically than it ought to. In line with LiveOn NY, about 6,000-9,000 undocumented individuals within the U.S. have kidney failure requiring a life-saving transplant. But, just one% of all kidney transplant recipients are
undocumented. This jarring statistic displays solely the plight of undocumented People in want of a kidney transplant. Hundreds extra want a lung, coronary heart, liver, or different vital organ to be able to survive, however are shut out due to their immigration standing.
We imagine {that a} coverage dictating who lives and who dies based mostly on immigration standing is inhumane and unethical. This is the reason we’re introducing the Humanitarian Emergency Entry for Required Transplants Act, or HEART Act, which would require the State to develop healthcare protection to incorporate medically crucial organ transplants, no matter immigration standing. This could be sure that somebody like Miguel could be positioned on the transplant listing and be coated for surgical procedure, post-medical care, and prescribed drugs.
Our laws will not be with out precedent. In 2014, Illinois handed an identical invoice into legislation that expanded public well being protection for emergency kidney transplants for undocumented immigrants. Though it is a step in the best path, we should go additional in New York and canopy the care wanted for the transplant of any organ the place an individual’s life is in danger, no matter immigration standing. Our undocumented neighbors should be acknowledged and handled like New Yorkers, and their survival mustn’t rely on their immigration standing.
***
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz represents elements of Queens. State Senator Nathalia Fernandez represents elements of the Bronx. On Twitter @CatalinaCruzNY & @Fernandez4NY.
***
Have an op-ed concept or submission for Gotham Gazette? E mail [email protected]
—
This publish was beforehand revealed on gothamgazette.com underneath a Artistic Commons License.
***
All Premium Members get to view The Good Males Venture with NO ADS. Want extra information? A whole listing of advantages is right here.
—–
Picture credit score: iStockPhoto.com