free healthcare countries like the UK, Japan, Australia, Canada; they tax the middle class pretty heavily. and they don't have millions of broke, homeless people showing up at their borders to detract from the system
Undocumented immigrants in the United States have very limited access to free healthcare, as they are ineligible for federal health coverage, including Medicaid, Medicare, or purchasing insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace.
Instead of comprehensive free healthcare, most undocumented immigrants rely on safety-net providers, such as community health centers and emergency rooms.
Key Facts on Healthcare Usage:
Uninsured Rates: Approximately 45% to 71% of undocumented immigrants are uninsured, making them the largest group of uninsured individuals in the country.
Emergency Medicaid: Undocumented immigrants can access "Emergency Medicaid," which covers acute, life-threatening conditions and labor/delivery, accounting for less than 1% of total Medicaid spending.
State-Funded Care: Some states use their own funds to provide coverage for specific populations (such as children or pregnant individuals) regardless of immigration status. For example, California has expanded coverage to certain low-income undocumented residents.
Usage Rates: Despite needing care, undocumented immigrants are less likely to use health services than U.S.-born citizens.
Children: While undocumented parents may not be eligible, their U.S.-born children are citizens and are eligible for all, including free or low-cost, public health benefits.
they don't have millions of broke, homeless people showing up at their borders to detract from the system
Key Findings
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Most of that amount, $59.4 billion, was paid to the federal government while the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments.
Undocumented immigrants paid federal, state, and local taxes of $8,889 per person in 2022. In other words, for every 1 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the country, public services receive $8.9 billion in additional tax revenue.
More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing. Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.
At the state and local levels, slightly less than half (46 percent, or $15.1 billion) of the tax payments made by undocumented immigrants are through sales and excise taxes levied on their purchases. Most other payments are made through property taxes, such as those levied on homeowners and renters (31 percent, or $10.4 billion), or through personal and business income taxes (21 percent, or $7.0 billion).
Six states raised more than $1 billion each in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants living within their borders. Those states are California ($8.5 billion), Texas ($4.9 billion), New York ($3.1 billion), Florida ($1.8 billion), Illinois ($1.5 billion), and New Jersey ($1.3 billion).
In a large majority of states (40), undocumented immigrants pay higher state and local tax rates than the top 1 percent of households living within their borders.
Income tax payments by undocumented immigrants are affected by laws that require them to pay more than otherwise similarly situated U.S. citizens. Undocumented immigrants are often barred from receiving meaningful tax credits and sometimes do not claim refunds they are owed due to lack of awareness, concern about their immigration status, or insufficient access to tax preparation assistance.
Providing access to work authorization for undocumented immigrants would increase their tax contributions both because their wages would rise and because their rates of tax compliance would increase. Under a scenario where work authorization is provided to all current undocumented immigrants, their tax contributions would rise by $40.2 billion per year to $136.9 billion. Most of the new revenue raised in this scenario ($33.1 billion) would flow to the federal government while the remainder ($7.1 billion) would flow to states and localities.
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Providing access to work authorization for undocumented immigrants would increase their tax contributions both because their wages would rise and because their rates of tax compliance would increase.
itep.org