STRUGGLE AND ADAPTATION AMONG UNINSURED AND UNDERINSURED BANGLADESHI IMMIGRANTS IN SOUTH FLORIDA

Health disparities in the US Health care system are a well-known fact. I examined such disparity with an anthropological lens, focusing on how Bangladeshi uninsured and underinsured immigrants navigate the system of doctors, clinics, hospitals, and payment regimes (insurance or not). I focused on how these immigrants experience the American system, how they react to it, interpret it, understand it, and contextualize it from their particular backgrounds and expectations. This study will be a step toward closing the knowledge gap of a particular immigrant group's everyday experience of access to health care in the U.S. This research emphasizes Bangladeshi immigrants' everyday sufferings, their struggle, their anxiety, and frustration with access to U.S. health care services. Besides, this is an opportunity to discover the barriers to healthcare access for Bangladeshi uninsured and underinsured immigrant groups. This study provides as much helpful information as possible about the health-seeking practices of uninsured and underinsured Bangladeshi immigrants through ethnographic experience. This study also shows how poor or low-income people are the victims of a country's structural violence. Furthermore, low-income, uninsured, and underinsured immigrants suffer a lot due to problems in the system. And this study also focuses on holistically understanding social inequalities in healthcare services in the U.S.