Daily Kos: Don't blame immigrants for healthcare crisis

by Duke1676
Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 06:55:58 AM PDT

Contrary to popular opinion, and the propaganda coming from anti-immigration advocates in Washington, a new study released in health care policy journal Health Affairs found that undocumented immigrants are not the cause of a public health crisis defined by over-crowded emergency departments, higher health care costs, and lower-quality primary care.

The study of 46,600 people living in 60 different communities found that the communities with high levels of Hispanics and undocumented immigrants had far lesser rates of emergency department use than communities with low undocumented representation. By far the largest cause of emergency department overcrowding was found to be an increased use of them as primary care facilities by native born Medicare and Medicaid recipients.