Title: The Medicaid Costs of Legalizing Illegal Aliens
Headings: The Medicaid Costs of Legalizing Illegal Aliens
The Medicaid Costs of Legalizing Illegal Aliens
Health Reform’s Expansion of Medicaid
Amnesty: The Second Fiscal Shoe to Drop
Illegal Immigrants and Medicaid
Conclusion
End Notes

Content: Were they to gain legal status through amnesty legislation, legalized aliens may be eligible for public programs, including Medicaid. It seems that it will be difficult to apply the same five-year exclusion from most welfare that applies to legal immigrants for legalized illegal aliens and Medicaid. Most of the newly legalized illegal immigrants would not have the normal visa sponsors who are to support them, as required of most lawful immigrants. Moreover, since one of the primary goals of health reform is universal coverage, it may be politically difficult to leave millions of newly legalized illegal aliens outside of the system. It may also be assumed that supporters of amnesty would strongly fight efforts to keep legalized immigrants ineligible for Medicaid. As shown below, if there were an amnesty and if uninsured illegal immigrants with qualifying incomes were allowed access to Medicaid, it will create significant obligations for U.S. taxpayers. These fiscal obligations are above what taxpayers already spend on uninsured illegal immigrants. Illegal Immigrants and Medicaid
In prior research, the Center for Immigration Studies has estimated, based on Census Bureau data, that 7.3 million (or 62 percent of) illegal immigrants lacked health insurance in 2007. Of those, 3.4 million earned less than 133 percent of the official poverty level, making them eligible for Medicaid. 3 Based on prior research, we also estimate that if illegal immigrants were legalized, wages would rise somewhat for those with jobs, thereby reducing the number of uninsured former illegal aliens with incomes below 133 percent of poverty to 3.1 million.