Title: Undocumented Shouldn't Mean Uninsured - CBS News
Headings: Undocumented Shouldn't Mean Uninsured
Undocumented Shouldn't Mean Uninsured
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Content: The only federal health care program that covers undocumented and newly arrived legal immigrants is known as "emergency Medicaid." Under this program, the government will pay for emergency hospital care for the pregnant, elderly, and disabled, and for children or the parent of a child. ( Although what, exactly, qualifies as an "emergency" is ambiguous: The federal government recently informed New York state that it would no longer fund chemotherapy.) Those who do not qualify for emergency Medicaid must pay for their treatment out of pocket, or the hospital must write it off as uncompensated care for which it should eventually be reimbursed, at least in part, by the federal government. While it is true that the ER expenses of immigrant children are greater than the per capita average, probably because they are sicker when they finally seek care, immigrants tend to spend less money on health care than their U.S.-born counterparts. ( One study in the American Journal of Public Health found that, in 1998, the average health care expenditures of a Hispanic immigrant, documented or undocumented, totaled $972. For a white, U.S.-born citizen, they were over $3,000.) Part of the reason for this discrepancy is because immigrants are, on average, younger and healthier than citizens. This would seem to be an argument for keeping the current system rather than expanding coverage, which tends to raise expenses as patients become insulated from the costs of their care.