Re: Dean Baker on immigration
Doug Henwood wrote:
What do you think about this: A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that in 2004 the annual uncompensated cost of medical care for illegal immigrants in California was $1.4 billion.
The most recent data for California health expenditures http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/nhestatehealthaccountstables.pdf was $126 billion in 2000. If that’s increased in line with national expenditures, that was probably about $170 billion in 2004. So, $1.4 billion is 0.8% of the total. Big damn deal, eh?
By the way, 1) FAIR is a dedicated anti-immigrant group, so their numbers may not be entirely trustworthy, and 2) if the GAO can’t come up with a good number, how can a gang of hacks like [the bad] FAIR?
Doug