CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A new University of Illinois-Chicago study shows that providing publicly funded healthcare for undocumented immigrants is a good investment for society. The researchers and advocates said those findings came in spite of the high costs.
The study, commissioned by the Healthy Illinois Campaign, found that two programs — Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults and Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors — paid off by helping individuals stay healthy, work, pay taxes, and avoid costly crisis care.
Matt Wilson, with UIC's Great Cities Institute, said that while any health care is expensive, it’s a problem all of us need to solve.
“If health care can become cheaper, that benefits everyone,” Wilson said. “It’s not just looking at these programs in isolation and in a state of rising health care costs, but also trying to address those.”
Ere Rendon, a vice president with the Resurrection Project, said people should realize caring for everyone's health helps the whole community.
“I don’t think that anybody can point to a single, credible economic study that demonstrates that immigrants actually cost more than what they’re able to contribute,” Rendon said. “It’s not necessarily based on facts. We can share all of the facts of the world out there, but I actually think that what’s the most powerful is stories.”
Graciela Guzman, an Organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union and a health care advocate, pointed out that undocumented immigrants do pay taxes.
“They’re filling unmet labor needs that are not only unfilled, obviously, but also really dangerous for health,” Guzman said. “Not only are these roles that are really, really difficult to fill, but the fact that these populations are stepping up and doing that work is actually putting them in … harm’s way.”
Ere Rendon, a vice president with the Resurrection Project, said she understands some people in struggling communities feel immigrants — and especially the new arrivals — are getting resources that they have been denied. Rendon, though, said they should be fighting together to get more for everyone.
“I think there is something about shared solidarity and experience that has to be centered, in terms of how we’re all collectively pushing toward advancing a health care agenda, that means we simplify the health care system that every single person can have, and that we’re starting to address things like the underinsured.”
It could be a coalition fighting for the same thing.
Health care for immigrants is the topic of this Sunday’s “At Issue” program, which will air live at 9:30 p.m.
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