Assessment of Immigrants’ Premium and Tax Payments for Health Care and the Costs of Their Care

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Abstract
Although immigrants use fewer health care services than US-born citizens,1 some worry that immigrants are a burden to the US economy and particularly to the health care system.2 Previous studies have found that immigrants,3 particularly undocumented immigrants,4 contribute more to the Medicare program (mostly through payroll taxes) than Medicare pays for their health care, thereby prolonging the life of the Medicare Trust Fund. Similarly, private health insurance premiums paid by immigrants (and by employers on their behalf) exceed the amounts private insurance plans pay for their care (ie, immigrants with private insurance effectively subsidize US-born private insurance enrollees).5 However, to our knowledge, no studies have examined the balance between immigrants’ financial contributions and costs to Medicaid, the third major pillar of the US health care economy, or provided an overall accounting of whether immigrants consume more health care than the care for which they pay.

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