Great post over at the Health Law Prof's blog summarizing a recent American Journal of Public Health article on immigrant usage of our health system. We've all heard, I'm sure, that our rise in health costs and the difference between us and other societies is our enormous immigrant population, which is to say that the goddamn Mexicans keep stealing over the border solely so they can get sick and charge it to America's Express card.
So is it true? Well, no.
- Immigrants receive an average of $1,139 worth of care per year, compared with $2,564 for non-immigrants.
- Immigrants, both legal and illegal, consumed 8% of our nation's health care, when they make up 10% of our nation's population. That means they're underconsuming health care, not using an excess amount of it.
- Health care costs for poor immigrant children are 84 percent less than those for native born kids. 84%!
- Immigrants, on average, receive half the health care that native born Americans get, saving the system hundreds of dollars per user. If we all used like immigrants do, we wouldn't have a cost crisis.
- Immigrants are also 200% more likely to be uninsured than the rest of the population.
- They account for 18% of the costs associated with the uninsured.
- This isn't necessarily an economic issue, or at least not solely. Cultural factors, language barriers, lack of education, low-income neighborhoods with fewer hospitals and doctors, and no access to convenient transportation affect both how many immigrants get themselves insured and howoften they seek care.
So, many apologies to those who found it convenient, but pin the crisis on the Hispanic just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Indeed, immigrants are most disproportionately expensive when they lack health insurance. Covering everyone would, of course, solve that.
