Deflating the Myths Immigrants and the Use of Medical Services in the United States Leo R. Chavez April 7, 2008 LMSA Presentation, UCI School of Medicine

Myth 1 Today’s immigrants are different from yesterday’s immigrants

Immigrants and disease Chinese: plague Irish: Typhoid Mary Haitians: Aids

Myth 2 Today’s immigrants, especially Mexicans and other Latin Americans, are overusing medical services

Immigrants = 20% of uninsured

MYTH 3 Giving undocumented immigrants health care and/or medical insurance will act as a magnet resulting in new undocumented migration

MYTH 4 Latina immigrants and their offspring have excessively high, even pathologically high, fertility levels

Samuel P. Huntington, Foreign Policy 2004 “In this new era, the single most immediate and most serious challenge to America’s traditional identity comes from immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, and the fertility rates of those immigrants compared to black and white American natives.”

MYTH 5 In places that are relatively rich, such as Orange County, health care is good for everyone

Source: CRLGS 2006

LACK OF MEDICAL CARE “I don’t have insurance. In my opinion, if one doesn’t have insurance, it’s bad because, well, here cures are expensive and, well you know, sometimes for many people, what we earn is not enough even to eat and live. So when we have these types of illnesses, we don’t go to the doctor because of a lack of money.” Mexican Immigrant

VariableBetaS.E.Exp(B)Significance Years in U.S./Age Private/Gov’t Insurance Latino/Anglo $35,000+ Family Income Male/Female Years of School Constant Model X2 =.000. Table 6. Logistic Regression. Dependent variable: Sought medical care in U.S. in last 12 months. Latinos and Anglos in Orange County, California. Source: Center for Research on Latinos in a Global Society Telephone Survey 2006.

Source: CRLGS Survey 2006 Table Logistic Regression. Dependent variable: Sought medical care in U.S. in last 12 months. Latinos Only in Orange County, California.

MYTH 6 Immigrants are unhealthy that is why they use so much health care

MYTH 7 Immigrants are just “takers” not “contributors”

Contributions $25 billion agricultural industry in California and Orange County $15 billion in remittances to families and communities in Mexico $7 billion a year in subsidies to Social Security by undocumented immigrants