Immigrants Have Lower Health Care Expenditures Than Their U.S.-Born Counterparts

KFF July 18, 2024
Drishti Pillai, Samantha Artiga

Introduction

As of 2022, there were 45.5 million immigrants residing in the U.S., including 21.2 noncitizen immigrants and 24.2 million naturalized citizens, who together account for about 15% of the total population.¹ While there has been increasing focus among some policymakers on the health care expenses incurred by immigrants, research suggests that they not only have lower health care costs than U.S.-born people but also help subsidize health care for U.S.-born people by paying more into the system through health insurance premiums and taxes than they utilize. This data note provides further insight into health care expenditures for immigrants by analyzing their average per capita health care expenditures and comparing them to expenditures for U.S.-born people overall and by health...

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