“Immigrants cost us money because they exploit our health care system and we pay for their health care” – this is one of the most often heard positions against immigrants to the US. A recent study invalidates that opinion. It shows that immigrants actually pay more into the health care pool than they withdraw. Effectively, this means that they are actually contributing to, not depleting the national budget.
The study, carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Tuffs University of Medicine, draws the following conclusions:
“Overall, immigrants almost certainly paid more toward medical expenses than they withdrew, providing a low-risk pool that subsidized the public and private health insurance markets. We conclude that insurance and medical care should be made more available to immigrants rather than less so.”
The researchers analyzed all the peer-reviewed studies that appeared in PubMed after the year 2,000, that had to do with health care related expenditures by immigrants, and were written in English in the United States.
The study was published in the International Journal of Health Services, on August 8, 2018. You can read the details HERE.
Having solid science on the side of defending immigrants’ rights is paramount. Our practice makes it a priority in staying on top of the latest developments and putting them in the service of defending our clients.
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