“The Trump administration’s narrative is not based in fact but is simply part of a much broader attempt to penalize and disparage immigrants.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-8-2018

“Recent immigrants are substantially healthier than native-born Americans, which benefits the American healthcare economy. But to maintain their health over the long-term, new immigrants—and all Americans—need access to good healthcare,” said Lila Flavin, a medical student at Tufts University School of Medicine. (Photo: OverpassLightBrigade/Twitter)

With the Trump administration reportedly close to unveiling a xenophobic proposal that portrays immigrants as leeches who exploit government healthcare programs at tremendous cost to U.S. taxpayers, a new study published on Wednesday shows that—contrary to the White House’s narrative—immigrants effectively subsidize the care of native-born Americans by paying more into the healthcare system than they receive in treatment.

“Overall, immigrants almost certainly paid more toward medical expenses than they withdrew, providing a low-risk pool that subsidized the public and private health insurance markets,” researchers from Harvard Medical School and Tufts University write in a summary of their findings, which were published in the International Journal of Health Services. “We conclude that insurance and medical care should be made more available to immigrants rather than less so.” Continue reading →