Why an Immigration-Status Check Will Make Your Insurance Premium Higher
As I’ve said before, the argument that there should be a test of immigration status before someone becomes eligible for subsidies to buy health insurance is reasonable clear even if it’s not a sentiment I find particularly compelling. But the idea of adding an immigration status check to letting people buy insurance on a regulated exchange with their own money is genuinely nuts. Andrew Romano points out that this will make health insurance more expensive, not cheaper:
Consider a few statistics. According to a July article in the American Journal of Public Health, immigrants typically arrive in America during their prime working years and tend to be younger and healthier than the rest of the U.S. population. As a result, health-care expenditures for the average immigrant are 55 percent lower than for a native-born American citizen with similar characteristics. With the ratio of seniors to workers projected to increase by 67 percent between 2010 and 2030, it stands to reason that including the relatively healthy, relatively employable and largely uninsured illegal population in some sort of universal health-care system would be a boon rather than a burden. “Insurance in principle has to cover the average medical cost of all the people it’s serving,” explains Leighton Ku, a professor of health policy at George Washington University. “So if you add cheaper people to the pool, like immigrants, you reduce the average cost.” More undocumented workers, in other words, means lower premiums for everyone.
We’re talking about implementing, in essence, a policy based on pure spite that’s not going to accomplish anything to improve citizens’ lives. Meanwhile, folks should attend to Andrea Nill’s point that stringent verification mechanisms tend to mostly wind up excluding legal residents who just have problems with their paperwork. Members of congress ought to consider the reality that voting mostly happens retrospectively. If you’re going to vote yes on a controversial health care package, your best defense is going to be making sure the package works well when implemented. These efforts to deflect immigration-related criticism are undermining the more important need to make the bill work as well as possible for most people.
31 Responses to “Why an Immigration-Status Check Will Make Your Insurance Premium Higher”
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September 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Why an Immigration-Status Check Will Make Your Insurance Premium Higher
That’s OK, passing the bill is going to result in a futre of endless rate increases far beyond any increase in the size of the economym or my income for that matter, so it’s not like it matters very much. Hell, we may as well just skip to the part where we blow the whole federal budget on party hats.
max
['There's a lobby that never gets any love.']
September 14th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Okay just re-phrase the language so that we’re forcing undocumented workers to pay the premiums for everyone else.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Because otherwise they will be showing up at the emergency room sucking up public resources and keeping you from seeing a doctor as you’re bleeding to death.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
We’re talking about implementing, in essence, a policy based on pure spite that’s not going to accomplish anything to improve citizens’ lives.
And this is different from most Republican proposals how? Though, to be accurate, it should really read “We’re talking about implementing, in essence, a policy based on pure spite that’s actively going to degrade citizens’ lives.”
September 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
i think you missed the point. this really isn’t about insurance. this is about treating illegals. the people
who are ranting about this know full well that illegals do not apply for benefits (at least for themselves). they can for their american born children. and that’s what’s going on.
the people who are screaming the loudest – starting with the north carolina loud mouth want the emergency room doctor to
ask the brown kid on the gurney to prove he is here legally before treating him. if the kid says no – then just stand back
and let the brown kid bleed out. same with an expectant
mother – just let her drop the baby on the floor. got a migrant worker with TB – no antibotics for you bub! even if
it means infecting those “real” amerkins. its pathetic. especially when you read how well americans are treated in
europe. embarassing. i don’t suppose being a Christian would entail asking who would Jesus treat? or insure?
September 14th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Feature not a bug to republicans.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
There is a legitimate complaint about hospitals and states being stuck with the cost of treating illegals. Instead of making such a case Republicans decide to make sure illegals access the healthcare system in the most cost prohibitive way further exacerbating the financial strain on hospitals and states.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Which only goes to show what an ignorant weiner Obama is proving to be.
After all health care reform is, as he reminded us last night, all about him!
So we just gotta trust him to do the right thing.
Why can’t you get with his program Matty?
You know, his loaves and fishes “not one thin dime” schtick.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
NEWTROLL IS DULL.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Immigrants, legal and illegal, tend to be healthy when they arrive, but illegal immigrants are more likely to do dangerous work for employers that are not covered by workers’ comp insurance, or to be too scared of being deported to file a workers’ comp claim. Also, illegal immigrants are more likely than other people in the health insurance pool to work around toxic chemicals without adequate (or any) protection. So their health care could get expensive if we suddenly stopped letting them drop like flies and insisted on treating them like human beings.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I’m not a fan of illegal immigration or BS arguments that they have no impact on wages or workplace safety standards. I wish our so-called liberal leaders cared half as much about the American poor as they do about their cheap source of labor from, but denying healthcare to some immigrants so they die scared, desperate and alone in a strange land isn’t the answer.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
There is a legitimate complaint about hospitals and states being stuck with the cost of treating illegals.
Sure, I can understand that argument but the mixing of immigration and health care is just a diversion to kill any reform.
EMTALA (for all uninsured irrespective of immigration status) has been on the books since 1986. I don’t ever remember anyone ever seriously trying to either repeal it or amend it so that we absolutely deny all care to illegal aliens and let them bleed to death in the parking lot.
It’s just a diversion.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
[...] the rest here: Why an Immigration-Status Check Will Make Your Insurance Premium Higher AKPC_IDS += "9928,";Popularity: unranked [?] Share and [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
[...] Matthew Yglesias has a new article up regarding the latest Republican demands for a citizenship test to prevent illegal aliens from spending their own money to buy health insurance in Obama’s public exchange. Yglesias’ points out the following: [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Re: Meanwhile, folks should attend to Andrea Nill’s point that stringent verification mechanisms tend to mostly wind up excluding legal residents who just have problems with their paperwork.
How strigent does it need to be? Very few illegal aliens have valid Social Security numbers. Should be very easy to validate SS#’s to make sure that the names match. Birth dates are another matter– it’s very hard to correct a birth date error with the SSA, so that check should be left undone as long as the Death Index can also be checked to make sure people aren’t using SSN’s of the deceased.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Immigrants, legal and illegal, tend to be healthy when they arrive, but illegal immigrants are more likely to do dangerous work for employers that are not covered by workers’ comp insurance, or to be too scared of being deported to file a workers’ comp claim.
Hence the desire of employers to outsource any dirty and dangerous jobs to subcontractors, thus cleaning their group insurance pool.
The obvious point about status verification is that it requires some kind of federal ID (and federal ID database) to work properly — the SSN was never designed to be a piece of ID, and the error rate in E-Verify is pretty high — which that would just get the ‘baggers whining about Big Brother and the price of liberty, because it’s Those People Over There who you need to be checking to see if they’re legal, not them.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
[...] Matthew Yglesias says checking citizenship status is “a policy based on pure spite” that will make insurance even [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Somehow our employers are struggling along with the I-9 form. I’ll bet CAP has one for Yglesias
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=31b3ab0a43b5d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=db029c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD
September 14th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Of all the Immigration enforcements laws that really works E-Verify has settled in to removing illegal immigrants from the workplace. E-Verify is being upgraded continually and marked workers can have errors resolved at their nearest Social Security office? But there is a “Sunset Provision” that could determine its future, since it’s specially working for the millions of jobless Americans? Supposedly E-Verification expires on September 30, only days after a Federal judge turned down a desperate delay from the despicable Special interest lobbyists led by the US Chamber of Commerce. On September 8 E-Verify, a contingency of the SAVE ACT was fully implemented mandating that all federal contractors and sub-contractors–MUST–use this computerized identification system.
The American people must understand their is tremendous pressure on anemic members of both political parties to dismantle, store or hinder the E-Verify process as they are the puppets of rich business enterprises. Then Rep. JOE WILSON R-NC) opened the proverbial humongous can of worms in the full house chamber.
We must endeavor to continue on raising our voices against the powerful forces that think nothing more than to destroy this valuable commodity called E-Verify. Overtime it will rid from every workplaces of millions of illegal workers, who think they are safe from government intervention. It will save billions of dollars being exported to other lands and sever the tolerant welfare programs, health care, education accessed by illegal low wage earners. E-Verify could introduced in all medical facilities, to check a persons national identity. The expedited message will spread and these lawbreakers will realize that it’s fruitless to keep on applying for jobs. Eventually families will start to pack-up and depart for every corner of the earth. But it’s up to the American voter to keep relentlessly calling the Washington switchboard 202-224-3121contacting their politicians.
Evaluate each lawmaker at NUMBERSUSA or JUDICIAL WATCH and command them to enforce E-Verify permanently. Not Voluntary for every business, but a mandatory addition for each employer. Fulfill their obligation to build the fence according to Rep. Duncan Hunter R-CA. Keep training the regular police according to the Federal 287 G directive,. Not to Rescind the No Match letter or desist ICE raids or weaken any other enforcement law, such as the 1986 Immigration Control & Reform Act. Fed’s should restrict SANCTUARY CITY & STATE policies. NOW IT’S UP TO YOU? STARTLING WEBSITE! GOOGLE—IMMIGRATIONCOUNTERS.
September 14th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
The problem is that everybody knows that, right now, our government health care programs are spending citizen’s tax money on health care for citizens of another country, who don’t pay taxes.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I don’t have insurance. Can I go to Mexico and get free emergency room treatment? NO.
Why would you expect them to pay for insurance?
This article is so wrong it’s pathetic. Are you kidding me? Illegals are already bankrupting the healthcare system in border states…see California.
Your assumption…that they’re payments will keep premiums down is absurd. Hello! It’s called a subsidy you half wit…the TAXPAYER will be making up the difference. You know…those people who work and have their wages confiscated to pay for all this crap.
Get a basic understanding of economics before you write this garbage.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
1. Many people not authorized to live or work in the US have valid Social Security Numbers for a variety of reasons, not the least of which the Social Security Administration (SSA) only began checking for immigration status circa 1995. Combined with the fact that many people fall out of and back into an immigration status that permits them to work and thus eligible for a valid Social Security Number (SSN), the fact of a valid SSN just doesn’t correspond to current, valid immigration status. The SSA is not charged with an immigration portfolio and it’s just not what they are set up to do. The later day efforts to get the SSA to exchange information with a variety of federal departments charged with the execution of our immigration laws – currently the Department of Justice, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security – is not particular efficient and many errors are made.
2. Noncitizens, lawfully or unlawfully present, pay taxes. They pay sales tax every time they buy almost anything (which, depending on the state, may include food, clothing and other basic necessities). They pay real estate taxes both through the property they purchase (and many purchase property) or indirectly through the rents that they pay. And noncitizens pay income tax, including Social Security taxes through a variety of mechanisms. (1) Those who have SSNs (valid or not) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) pay taxes – and tons of immigrant pay taxes with an SSN or an ITIN every year. (2) Many noncitizens working without valid SSNs or without employment authorization end up paying taxes through their paychecks without ever taking money back. In 2005, the number of noncitizens paying into the system without taking money back was subsidizing Social Security to the tune of about $7 billion per year. See – http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?scp=1&sq=social+security+surplus+%26+undocumented&st=nyt
September 14th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Julie…what you fail to consider, is that those same individuals who you claim don’t get anything back from SSA…receive HUGE SUBSIDIES from something called the Earned Income Tax Credit. Yes–illegal aliens DO receive that subsidy, and at 8x the rate of our native born poor.
Illegals aliens represent a net cost to native born citizen taxpayers, but they are a boon to the corporate elite who love the cheap labor and REALLY love passing the healthcare costs on to the taxpayer.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:25 am
I’m sure that Denture Girl will be backing up those claims any time now, and will also be explaining how much she has to spend at the grocery store to avoid the discounts that come from eating food picked, processed or slaughtered by illegal immigrants.
Can I go to Mexico and get free emergency room treatment? NO.
You can go and get some very cheap antipsychotics. Keep that in mind.
(FWIW, it’s estimated that half a million citizens and legal immigrants in California go south of the border for medical care every year.)
September 15th, 2009 at 2:56 am
[...] Matthew Yglesias » Why an Immigration-Status Check Will Make Your … [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Look, if you have a problem with current immigration law, go work to change it. Healthcare, though, doesn’t have much to do with immigration. People who are insisting that health care reform be the occasion for enacting a program to enforce immigration laws aren’t really serious about either.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I don’t have insurance. Can I go to Mexico and get free emergency room treatment? NO.
I don’t know about Mexico, but I know you can go to Germany, France, Britain, etc. and get free emergency room treatment even as a foreigner.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I have no problem with an illegal immigrant buying insurance from the pool for the reasons Matt lays out. But in another post he bemoans the stinginess of the potential subsidies in Baucuscare.
I would not support giving illegal immigrants taxpayer-funded subsidies to buy insurance.
September 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Isn’t there a Hippocratic oath that doctors take. It is against all we stand for to deny medical attention to those in need regardless of their status. Think about it for a minute. If we refuse medical service to those in need then we are no better than the tyrants we have deposed. The wars that we have fought and the good things we have done as a nation will no longer be remembered. We will only be known as a country without a heart. I believe that if we develop a universal health care plan then it needs to have provisions for all. If after treatment we decide to deport individuals so be it. To deny at least emergency care is no different that denying food or water to those in need. That is not and never has been our way as a people. That is something I for one am not willing to change.
September 15th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
What Yglesias ignores is that illegal aliens may not cost as much, but they also do not put anywhere near as much back in, because they are so poor.
Unless their premiums are heavily subsidized, there is no way that illegal aliens will be able to pay community-rated premiums.
September 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
We will be far better off from a public health perspective if all persons in the US have proper healthcare. I have no desire for the undocumented alien sitting next to me on the subway to have untreated TB. If he coughs near me, I suffer. If he gets treatment, I am far less likely to catch what he has. The undocumented dishwasher in the diner – don’t you think that the patrons will be better off if he get treatment for that nasty stomach virus he has? Denying people the ability to buy health insurance with their own money simply means that we will have a large pool of people in our society who are more likely to infect the rest of us. Regardless of one’s position on the overall immigration debate ( I am pro-immigrant, by the way) this is a counterproductive battle.