No, Undocumented Migrants Don't Receive Medicaid.
Even Though They Probably Should.
As Donald Trump looks for ways to cut funding to various social programs, including Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), arguments pointing the finger at those receiving the aforementioned benefits are coming back to the forefront in an attempt to justify these cuts.
This includes pretending that undocumented immigrants are “mooching” off the system by receiving federal healthcare through Medicaid.
This of course has no basis in reality, though it probably should. Access to preventative care and regular check ups is heavily associated with better health outcomes.
This means less transmissible diseases that could effect everyone, as well as lower healthcare costs born by taxpayers, as it lowers emergency health costs as well as surgeries or more extensive treatments down the line.
Actually, the opposite is true from what Trump and others claim here. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes each year, and are projected to pay $1.2 trillion in taxes over the next decade.
This is not only money paid into these exact social programs, but money that they will never then take out, as the overwhelming majority will never become citizens to receive Social Security, Medicare, or other programs they are funding.
Now there are some realities to address, while undocumented immigrants don’t receive any federal benefits, there are some select states where Medicaid coverage may be possible.
This is however entirely state-funded, and open to the state legislatures.
There are currently 6 states where undocumented immigrants can receive state-funded coverage, though the context here is important.
This isn’t a program made specifically for undocumented immigrants, or even promoted as such, but that these states only consider income-level for their Medicaid qualifications.
These decisions have been made mostly by states with high numbers of undocumented migration, who have decided it is more cost-effective to guarantee coverage to all than to create the hoops needed to jump through to qualify.
It is important to note, undocumented immigrants exist in America, they always will exist in America, and they get sick like anybody else.
There needs to be some mechanism in place to deal with this reality, and these 6 states have decided on their own accord they would rather foot the bill for expanded Medicaid than increased emergency services.
Also, this is just insurance that covers these emergency services for this population. Altogether, it accounts for less than 1% of Medicaid spending on both the federal and state level. This means a rough estimate of $9 billion.
Meanwhile, the average annual cost for emergency services is roughly $80 billion. This means if taking the highest end, state’s choosing to do these are seeing a savings potential of $71 billion.
Undocumented immigrants are both more likely to be uninsured, and more unlikely to have healthcare visits than U.S born citizens.
They are also still humans.
They also still deserve good health like everybody else.
They also deserve access to healthcare when they need it, even if they came here without proper documentation.
The truth is, we will always have some percent of the population in America be represented by undocumented immigrants as long as we have an immigration system.
They don’t currently receive federal benefits, despite Donald Trump’s lies that they do.
But even more importantly, they probably should.