Fw: Web First-Immigrant Health Spending: Some Surprise Findings

[Guest guest]

This press release is of interest. The link to the article itself, released just this morning, is live and without cost-- i.e., the article can be accessed for free for the next ~2 weeks. It could be important for policy makers in many arenas.

Please forgive the absence of a personal message. I'm sending this out to a number of individuals.

Best wishes,

Tina

Tina Castañares, MD3301 Kollas RoadHood River, OR 97031541. 354-1666tina.castanares@...

----- Original Message ----- From: Health Affairs

tina.castanares@...

Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 6:20 AM

Subject: Web First-Immigrant Health Spending: Some Surprise Findings

Web First

Embargoed Until

Contact

February 11, 201012:01 AM PST

Sue DucatDirector of Communications(301) 841-9962sducat@...

From Health Affairs

The True Costs of Immigrant Health Care Spending

Bethesda, MD - An article published today by Health Affairs disputes the widely held belief that U.S. immigrants place a large financial burden on the U.S. health care system. The study examined health care spending between 1999 and 2006 for both adult naturalized citizens and immigrant noncitizens, which included some undocumented immigrants. It found that cost of providing health care to immigrants is lower than that of providing care to U.S. natives and that immigrants are not contributing disproportionately to high health care costs in public programs like Medicaid. However, noncitizen immigrants were more likely than U.S. natives to have a health care visit classified as uncompensated care.

Trends In Health Care Spending For Immigrants In The United StatesBy Jim P. Stimpson, A. , and Karl Eschbachhttp://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.2009.0400

Stimpson and are assistant professors at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth; Eschbach is a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

This study analyzed available data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) for the years 1999-2006. It found that while expenditures increased for all groups, the average expenditures for noncitizens were about 50 percent smaller than for U.S. natives. In addition, 50 percent of noncitizens had public per capita expenditures of $200 or less, while 50 percent of naturalized citizens had per capita public expenditures of up to $1,100, and established immigrants have higher expenditures than recent arrivals. Finally, with tighter residency requirements in public programs such as Medicaid, the study found that noncitizen immigrants, many living in poverty, were more likely than U.S. natives to have a health care visit classified as uncompensated care, although uncompensated care declined across all groups during this period. "Health care expenditures for the average immigrant have not been a growing problem relative to expenditures among U.S. natives," concluded the authors. "It is likely that lower expenditures among noncitizens are due to lower need for services and to increasing barriers to care such as fear, lack of insurance, or lack of a regular provider. These findings have important implications for both immigration and health care reform."

About Health Affairs

Health Affairs, published by Project HOPE, is the leading journal of health policy. Beginning in January 2010, the peer-reviewed journal appears each month in print, with additional Web First papers published weekly at http://www.healthaffairs.org/. The full text of each Health Affairs Web First paper is available free of charge to all Web-site visitors for a two-week period following posting, after which it switches to pay-per-view for nonsubscribers. Web First papers are supported in part by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund.

You are receiving this e-mail because you registered on the Health Affairs Web site. Click here to unsubscribe: http://www.healthaffairs.org/1260_opt_in.php

Free Alerts From Health Affairs

Receive new Health Affairs article alerts in your choice of format:>> E-mail alerts of new articles and tables of contents from Health Affairs. >> RSS feed for new article headlines delivered to your Web site or reader.>> Sunday UpDate: a weekly e-mail summary of what's new in Health Affairs.>> Follow Health Affairs updates on Twitter.

Subscribe

Subscribe today for full online access to the publication the Washington Post calls -- "the indispensable journal Health Affairs."

New On Health Affairs Blog

Investments in community health centers have paid off, researchers say in Health Affairs.

The CHCF's Mark discusses converging market and public health interests in Health Affairs.

Henry , ph Antos, and Jost discuss the way forward on health reform.

The 10 most-read Health Affairs Blog posts are available for January.

The 20 most-read Health Affairs articles for 2009 are free online through February 12.

Health Affairs - 7500 Old town Road, Suite 600 - Bethesda, MD 20814