A research study published in the medical journal Health Affairs found that immigrants generated a surplus of $115.2 billion in the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund from 2002 to 2009.
That’s right – rather than acting as a burden on the system, America’s immigrants have actually been subsidizing health care in the United States.
The study found that U.S.-born Americans generated a cumulative deficit of $28.1 billion during the same period. Furthermore, the study’s data showed that non-citizen immigrants’ $10.1 billion contributions to the Medicare trust fund in 2009 accounted for the majority of total contributions in that year by immigrants.
The authors of the study explained the results as follows:
“Immigrants generate a surplus for Medicare primarily because so many of them are working-age adults and the group has a high labor-force participation rate—a combination that generates large payroll tax payments.”
This study is the first of its kind to provide data on immigrant’s contributions to the U.S. health care system. Its results offer a new perspective to the notion that immigrants are a drain to Medicare resources, suggesting instead that their contributions are critical to the program’s economic survival.
You can read the entire report about the study at:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2013/05/20/hlthaff.2012.1223.full#published
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