The global coronavirus pandemic has come roaring into the United States. With thousands of confirmed cases and more than one hundred deaths, the entire country is in a state of emergency as Americans grapple with the new realities of “social distancing.”
The point of all this is to limit the spread of the disease. But just avoiding each other isn’t enough — we also need to make sure anyone who needs care gets it as quickly as possible.
If we can learn one thing from the pandemic, it’s that the United States must provide high-quality health care for all. And I mean all of us — including undocumented immigrants. In a pandemic, anything that discourages our immigrant communities from getting care is a public health threat.
For many undocumented families, like millions of others, the first major barrier is cost.
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