Title: Illegal Immigrants Account for $10.7 Billion of Nation’s Health Care Costs, Data Show | CNSNews
Headings: Illegal Immigrants Account for $10.7 Billion of Nation’s Health Care Costs, Data Show
Illegal Immigrants Account for $10.7 Billion of Nation’s Health Care Costs, Data Show
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Content: “It’s a fairly significant contribution,” Martin said, “it comes out of the pocket of the states for the most part because of the fact that it is not covered by Medicaid. The federal government has had a program of partial reimbursement of those expenses but that hasn’t been renewed [by this Congress]. It didn’t begin to cover those expenses [anyway].” That $10.7 billion is not spread evenly throughout the country, Martin explained, but is borne primarily by states with high populations of illegal aliens -- states such as California, Texas, and Florida. “In terms of locations, it basically flows with where the largest concentration of illegal immigrants are,” said Martin. “ For example, California is the largest and just within the state – not including federal monies – I get that [cost] at $1.6 billion per year.” In fact, state governments bear the heaviest burden for subsidizing the health care of illegal immigrants. Martin said he calculated that, all told, states pay $6.9 billion per year to care for their illegal immigrant populations. “The estimates of the costs that are paid by the states in total run to about $6.9 billion,” he said. “ The difference between that and the over $10 billion figure is the amount that is paid out of federal funds.”