NEW REPORTS STUDY IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON HEALTH INSURANCE RATES The Center for Immigration Studies, a non-partisan research organization focused on studying the impact of immigration to the US, this week released a new study, focused on the impact of immigrants, legal and undocumented, on health insurance coverage rates.
According to the report, current immigration policy is in large part responsible for the current health insurance situation. Among the most striking of the report’s findings is that in 1998, 32.4% of people living in immigrant households, including US citizen children, were not covered by health insurance. In households headed by a citizen, only 13.9% of people lack insurance. Newly arrived immigrants have accounted for 59% of the increase in the uninsured population since 1993.
The report also indicates that even long-term immigrants, those who have been here since the 1970s and 1980s are insured at a lower rate than the rest of the population. Even in immigrant households with high incomes, above $75,000 a year, the insurance rate is lower than in the general population.
Critics of the study say that it has missed much of the larger picture. While it does note that many of the lower skill positions occupied by immigrants do not offer health insurance, it ignores the fact that many highly skilled immigrants work for companies that do not offer insurance.
The other study released this week focused on whether undocumented immigrants are drawn to the US by the lure of public health benefits. The answer given by the report, contrary to popular opinion, is that public health benefits have little, if any, impact on a person’s decision to come to the US. The authors of the report conclude that because what drives undocumented immigration is the desire to be reunified with family and to seek a better job, cutting access to healthcare would only deny care to their children, who are often US citizens. Moreover, according to the study undocumented immigrants tend to make less use of public health services than other groups in the population, raising doubts about the burden they place on taxpayers. The Center for Immigration Studies report is available at their website at www.cis.org. The other study was published in the journal Health Affairs, and is also available online at www.projhope.org/HA. < Back | Next > Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. | 
