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Dana P. Goldman, James P. Smith, and Neeraj Sood Legal Status And Health Insurance Among Immigrants Health Affairs, November/December 2005; 24(6): 1640-1653. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] [Online Technical Appendix] [Reprints & Permissions]

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One of These Things Is Not Like the Other One

Stan L. Dorn   ( 14 November 2005 )

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other One 14 November 2005
Stan L. Dorn, Senior Policy Analyst Economic and Social Research Institute Send comment to journal: Re: One of These Things Is Not Like the Other One sdorn{at}esresearch.org Stan L. Dorn	The article's national extrapolation of results from L.A. County is breathtaking. Immigrants in Los Angeles County seem quite different from those in the country as a whole. A quick perusal of census data for 2000, for example, shows that foreign-born residents of L.A. County are 62% less likely to come from Europe than are foreign-born residents of the U.S.; 22% more likely to come from Latin America; and 14% less likely to have arrived in the U.S. during the last 10 years. Opponents of coverage expansion nationally are likely to seize on this extrapolation and argue that, since the problem of the uninsured primarily boils down to undocumented immigrants, the problem is unworthy of prioritization by policymakers. Those who could make this claim are unlikely to be deterred by further evidence from the Census Bureau that the percentage of uninsured who are non-citizens has remained constant from 2000-2004. Given this evidence and the foreseeable use of the study's extrapolation, it is curious and disappointing that the authors did not note that immigrants in the U.S. as a whole may be quite different from those in L.A. County.