Hollow Blog

Contrary to popular myth, immigrants — illegal or legal — impose less costs on the U.S. health-care system than U.S. citizens.

Indeed a Feb. 2008 RAND Corporation study concluded:

Overall, immigrants to the United States use relatively few health services, primarily because they are generally healthier than their American-born counterparts, according to a November edition of the journal Health Affairs –- estimates that in the United States about $1.1 billion in federal, state and local government funds are spent annually on health care for undocumented immigrants aged 18 to 64. That amounts to an average of $11 in taxes for each U.S. household. In contrast, a total of $88 billion in government funds were spent on health care for all non-elderly adults in 2000.

And:

“Our findings show a relatively small amount of tax money is spent on health services provided to undocumented immigrants,” said James P. Smith, the RAND chair in Labor Market and Demographic Studies and an author of the report.

 Other noteworthy items:

“This suggests that the act of immigrating to the United States favors those who are generally healthier and may discourage those who have chronic health problems,” said study co-author Sood.

“But the largest factor [of significantly lower healthcare costs of immigrants -- legal or illegal] appears to be due to their being generally healthier than the native-born population.”

Bottom line:

The foreign-born (especially the undocumented) use disproportionately fewer medical services and contribute less to health care costs in relation to their population share (this means U.S. citizens), likely because of their better relative health and lack of health insurance.

No wonder the demand for illegal (undocumented) immigrants is high! They are healthier than citizens and the employer does not have to pay for health insurance. Even if undocumented workers did have health insurance, their healthier-than-US-citizens diet and lifestyles would still make them a better employment choice.