U.S. immigrants' taxes, premiums pay for more healthcare than they use: study

Migrants cross a street near a migrant resource center in San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on Sept. 30, 2022. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

That surplus partially offset a deficit created by U.S.-born citizens, who paid 67.2 billion dollars less in premiums and taxes than third-party payers did for their care.

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A study published on Wednesday suggests that undocumented immigrants in the United States help hold up the nation's healthcare system, reported Beckers Hospital Review on Thursday.

U.S.-born citizens and immigrants paid similar amounts in premiums and taxes: 6,629 U.S. dollars per capita and 6,345 dollars per capita, respectively. But third-party expenditures were lower for immigrants' healthcare (5,061 dollars per capita) than U.S.-born citizens' healthcare (6,511 dollars per capita), according to the report.

Immigrants paid on average 1,284 dollars more per person than was paid on their behalf for healthcare, and undocumented immigrants' contributions exceeded their expenditures by 4,418 dollars per person. This led to a 58.3 billion dollars net surplus of payments from immigrants, 89 percent of whom were undocumented, it said.

"That surplus partially offset a deficit created by U.S.-born citizens, who paid 67.2 billion dollars less in premiums and taxes than third-party payers did for their care," it added.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, examined 210,669 respondents to the 2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2014 to 2018 data from the American Community Survey. ■