The Economic Advisor

Why Should Immigrants Be Thankful to the US Healthcare System

Picture this hypothetical example: there is a family of five in mainland China. Father, mother, 2 daughters and one son - the youngest member of the family. The parents are civil servants, therefore they enjoy middle class type of living.

The 1st sister somehow gets to come and study in the US. She lands in Los Angeles and enrolls in a program at a major Southern Cal university. Within a short time, she meets and marries another Asian who is a US citizen, hence she becomes a US citizen. She invites the 2nd sister, who also lands in Los Angeles, and gets an MBA from another university in the area. Within a short time she also meets a US citizen so she gets married and goes through the same routine.

Within a short time both newlyweds get pregnant and produce miniature proud US citizens. Now the sisters’ parents are coming to the US to take care of the new citizens, while the sisters are working making money. So far so good. But, this is where it begins to get really pretty. One of the sisters gets the parents enrolled in Medicaid, so they get free medical benefits, which they consume abundantly and with joy; after all, they never contributed a single dime into the pool that every other US citizen spent their life paying for. But this is just the beginning: remember the younger son? Well, he gets married and within a few months they decide to start a family, but where would the best place to do this be? Yes, you guessed it: the good ole US of A!

So the brother’s wife gets invited by the sisters-in-law to come to the US and gets enrolled into the “special” program where she gets complete-free medical care, food stamps, etc., while she is pregnant, plus all the support she needs. When the time comes, she enters the best hospital in town and delivers the new US citizen! She is very happy, after all, she did not pay a dime for all these benefits!

We all know how much pregnancy and giving birth cost at a premium hospital-center, with private room and total service. Lets round the number to $20,000 for discussion purposes. The parents’ lifespan is about 20 more years (they are about 60s now), hence their benefits will cost taxpayers about $220,000 ($5k each parent per year for 20 years - plus the above discussed birth). If we assume about 100,000 Chinese (conservative guess) emigrate to the US every year, and only 5% select to take the above described pathway, then the cost to the US health care system is estimated to be $22 Billion over the next 20 years!

The above example gives a good idea of the kind of abuse the US health care system is subjected to, and the size of the burden US citizens -who pay their dues year after year, are forced to tolerate. This example may apply to any ethnic group, hence the cost could be a multiple of the $22 billion stated above.

The bottom line is this: we all know immigration made this country and hence it is to be tolerated to a certain degree, as long as it does not impose a burden to the already overburdened US citizens. Furthermore, although the example given in this article is referencing Chinese immigrants, it could be the case that other groups, (Koreans, Italians, Greeks, etc.,) are potential abusers of the immensely tolerant US health system. It would be interesting to see whether Greek and Italian immigrants, who have been living in the US longer, and in proportionally larger numbers, are equally prone to be abusing the system. The author (himself an immigrant) does not have real examples for such cases but this does not mean they do not exist.

The question is: with all the attention on the recent health care reform debates and their intention to cut Medicare and doctors’ fees and thus deprive the paying US citizens of proper care and services, how tolerant are we supposed to be about immigrants? It needs to be emphasized that although this serious abuse of the system needs to be addressed, it may be reflecting a minority of immigrant behavior, albeit at great costs to US.

The ultimate winner in the above example is China, as it banks the savings from shifting the above mentioned costs to the US. In addition, the one child law that China enforces should be modified; one of the reasons that this couple mentioned in this example decided to bear a child out of China, is this law. By having a child outside of China, they can now have a 2nd child - legally - in China.

Did you find this article informative, thought provoking or interesting? If so, you may also enjoy visiting my blog: http://www.askDrNick-anything.blogspot.com.