Access to Health Care for Elderly Immigrants

This comment argues that our current approach of limiting immigrant access to federal healthcare programs for the elderly is not only unjust, but also shortsighted. The author points out that many undocumented immigrants make significant tax contributions to the Medicare and Social Security programs. By not permitting undocumented immigrants to receive Medicare benefits associated with their contributions, the incentive for immigrants to contribute to Medicare will be eliminated and further strain will be placed on the Medicaid program. The author concludes that this policy approach will increase the costs to society of providing health care to an aging immigrant population and to our elderly population as a whole.