Undocumented Immigrants from Latin America Less Likely Than Latino U.S. Citizens to Use Hospital Emergency Rooms

Restrictionists often point to the costs of undocumented immigratnts as a reason for increased border enforcement.  Yesterday, we posted a story about a study showing that immigrants in New York carry their weight economically.  Today, the L.A. Times reports that undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are 50% less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to use hospital emergency rooms in California, according to a study published Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

In Los Angeles County, much of the focus of that debate has been on hospital emergency rooms. Ten have closed in the last five years, citing losses from treating the uninsured, and those that remain open are notorious for backlogs. By federal law, hospitals must treat every emergency, regardless of a person’s insurance — or immigration — status. Undocumented immigrants, who often work at jobs that don’t offer health insurance, are commonly seen as driving both the closures and the crowding. But the study found that while illegal immigrants are indeed less likely to be insured, they are also less likely to visit a doctor, clinic or emergency room.

In related news, the Washington Post reports that the cost of delivering government services to illegal immigrants in Fairfax County, Virginia is all but impossible to determine, County Executive Anthony H. Griffin said in a report made public yesterday. That’s because no one knows how many undocumented immigrants live in the county and because many of the services — such as libraries, parks, public transit and roads — are provided to everyone and not designed for a specific subset of the population.

KJ