I came across this interesting report just now entitled, Mental and Physical Health Status of Iraqi Refugees Resettled in the United States.
When you open the report, be sure to see the 4th frame with the map of the US depicting where the 63,000 or so Iraqis resettled (at the time of this undated report) to the US have been sent. Of course, Wyoming shines like a bright light having received zero refugees, but look closely—VP Joe Biden’s Delaware is among the handful of states receiving only small numbers of refugees. I find that so amusing since ol’ Joe helped create the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 with ol’ Teddy (Kennedy), yet Delaware gets only a tiny number of the neediest immigrants.
Back to the study and its results.
Here is the summary:
23% not covered by health insurance
67% not currently working ***
63% rated physical health as fair or poor
23% married to their first cousins
Chronic Diseases
60% ≤1 condition
37% ≤2 conditions
Mental Health Conditions
50% reported emotional distress
31% at risk for PTSD
Then here are some comments the refugees made during a forum:
* I will submit a request for social security pension because this will ensure having Medicaid…
* I am worried they will stop the Medicaid and I still have many operations to do…
* Medicaid will be canceled if my husband income exceeds a certain limit,….I feel that I am a burden to my husband because if he worked for extra hours, they would cancel my Medicaid. I need it for my psychological and physical health problems…
* We can handle stopping the food stamps but not the Medicaid…
* The more honest you are in explaining your medical problems, the less they will believe you……
* Please tell the Medicaid staff that when I am smiling in their face, that does not mean I am fine, nobody knows what I am going through and the pain I have……
It sure is a good thing that Obamacare will soon rescue these unhealthy refugees.
*** What do you make of that—67% not working. Didn’t we just hear a couple of days ago that over 80% (almost 90%!) of the refugees living in Manchester, NH have work? Maybe we should send more Iraqis to Manchester? (Just kidding!)
New readers take note: We have a health issues category, here, with 130 posts covering many very important topics involving immigrant health.
An afterthought: When you look at that map and notice that the largest number of refugees are assigned to California, think about that when you read that some California cities may soon “cease to exist.”