Undocumented Immigrants From Latin America Half As Likely As U.S.-Born Latinos To Seek Care In California Emergency Departments, Study Finds

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Nov 2007 - 10:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Undocumented immigrants from Latin America are 50% less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to visit emergency departments in California, according to a study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Researchers led by Alexander Ortega, an associate professor at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Public Health, examined data from 42,044 responses to the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, a randomized survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the state Department of Public Health.

Ortega and colleagues found that in addition to being less likely to have health insurance, undocumented immigrants are less likely to visit a physician, clinic or ED. In addition, after accounting for age, health status, insurance status and poverty level, researchers found that undocumented immigrants still made fewer visits to physicians and were 30% less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to have a consistent source of health care.

Ortega said, "The current policy discourse that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the public because they overuse public resources is not borne out with data, for either primary care or emergency department care." He added, "In fact, they seem to be underutilizing the system, given their health needs" (Engel, Los Angeles Times, 11/27).

An abstract of the study is available online.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations