Immigrants and Health Coverage: By the Numbers Immigrants are substantially more likely than U.S. citizens to lack health insurance coverage. •
Among adults, about threefifths (59%) of undocumented immigrants and onequarter (24%) of legal immigrants are uninsured. In contrast, 13% of U.S.born citizens do not have health insurance (see Figure 1).1
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Children in immigrant families—including citizen children as well as immigrant children—are more likely than children in citizen families to be uninsured. Among children of the undocumented, nearly half (45%) of all undocumented children were uninsured and onequarter (25%) of citizen children have no insurance coverage.2
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Researchers estimate that undocumented immigrants and their children make up about one in six (17%) uninsured people in the U.S.3
Figure 1: Uninsured Population by Immigration and Citizenship Status 59%
24% 13% Undocumented Immigrants
Legal Immigrants
U.S.-born Citizens
Source: Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States(Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2009).
Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). 2 Ibid.. 3 Ibid. 1