The Immigration Policy Center recently unveiled the truth about immigrants and health-care reform with the facts and evidence below:

1) The U.S. is not spending “too much” on health care for immigrants. A July 2009 article in the American Journal of Public Health found that insured immigrants had much lower medical expenses than insured U.S.-born citizens. Insured immigrants’ per-person medical expenditures were 1/2 to 2/3 less than the U.S.-born with similar characteristics.

2) The vast majority of people in America who don’t have health insurance are U.S. citizens. Four out of five people in America who have no insurance are U.S. citizens.

3) Contrary to popular belief, noncitizens are significantly less likely to use emergency room services than U.S. citizens. According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Commission, noncitizens have poorer access to care and receive less primary health care than citizens, but they are less likely than citizens to use the emergency room. Cities with large immigrant populations such as Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Phoenix, Arizona, have much lower rates of emergency room use than areas with small immigrant populations such as Cleveland.