Visa Agricultural Worker Struggles with Hospital Bills

Diane Mendez, a promotora in the Southeast region of Colorado, was called in mid-September by an agricultural worker from Otero County who was in a challenging situation and needed some help. He was an H2A worker that came for work during the season but sadly, he became sick and was eventually hospitalized for a few days. Five months later, he reached out to the promotoras for help because he was returning to Mexico and needed help with paying his medical bills. Diane called the hospital and scheduled an appointment for the worker to meet with a hospital employee who could speak Spanish. When she called the worker back to let him know about the appointment, he did not answer his phone. The next day, he called again and asked what could be done even though he was in Mexico at the time. She explained to him that the hospital program could only help him with bills that dated back to 90 days, which was an issue because his hospitalization had happened five months prior. The worker then became extremely worried because he did not want to the medical bills to affect him when he came back to the U.S. to work next year. There is no update currently on whether the agricultural worker was able to receive aid with his medical bills, but his story is significate in that it highlights a struggle that other agricultural workers have faced when dealing with medical problems that result in expensive bills.