Last week, the New York Times blog, “Prescriptions,” which is devoted to the ongoing explanation of the increasingly muddled health care debate, published an overdue article clarifying the cost of undocumented immigrants to our health care system. A new study, published online in the journal Health Affairs suggests that contrary to popular perception, immigrants actually cost the health care system less per person than do US natives.
Examining public, private and out-of-pocket spending on health care between 1999 and 2006, this study focuses on three groups: adult naturalized citizens, immigrant noncitizens, including the undocumented, and native citizens. The conclusions are essential to informing our understanding of the health care debate – a political conversation-turned-polemic steeped in propagandistic rhetoric that threatens the success of much needed reform.
As arguments abound that immigrants saturate public health programs and incur disproportionate costs, it’s time to set the record straight.
Below are some of the valuable conclusions from the study:
- While overall spending on health care increased for all groups during the study period, spending for noncitizens was an average of 50% less than for US natives.
- Public spending for immigrants is lower per capita than spending for US natives in public programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
- While 11% of US natives sought uncompensated medical care, roughly 13% of noncitizens sought such care, a consequence of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which bars immigrants from Medicaid coverage during their first five years in the country.
Opponents of universal health coverage frequently revert to the erroneous argument that health care benefits attract immigrants. In fact, pieces of legislation like the 1996 law mentioned above and even newer budget cuts like California’s elimination of Medi-Cal services, which provide Medicaid to over 100,000 immigrants, mean that it is more difficult than ever for immigrants to obtain basic health care.
It is clear from the Health Affairs study and the budget cuts in California, that immigrants are neither burdensome to the health care system, nor are they receiving a level of care that even mirrors what we could consider adequate coverage. Rather than infusing the health care debate with skullduggery and scapegoating immigrants for our failing system, let’s reclaim honest rhetoric – let’s have a conversation. With the record straight and our tempers cooled, the time for reform is now.