Immigration and Health Insurance

If the U.S. had received less immigration over the past two decades - or if that immigration had been more highly skilled and better qualified - than today's healthcare problem would be smaller, easier, and cheaper to solve.

The coverage of illegal immigrants is a side issue and red herring in the healthcare debate. The big issue is the connection between insurance and immigration - all immigration.

• More than one-quarter of the uninsured population is foreign-born.
• More than half of all foreign-born people are uninsured.
• Immigrants accounted for more than 80% of the increase in the uninsured population in the Bush years.

If the U.S. had received less immigration over the past two decades - or if that immigration had been more highly skilled and better qualified - than today's healthcare problem would be smaller, easier, and cheaper to solve.

And since there is every indication that the U.S. will continue to receive immigrants on a very large scale - and that this immigration will continue to be predominantly low-skilled and low-waged - current immigration policies represent a huge and costly additional difficulty in the way of insuring everyone.

President Obama offered glib assurances that illegals won't be covered. It's hard to agree with his confidence, since his own party has rejected meaningful enforcement measures. But if he wished truly to speak responsibly about immigration and healthcare, he'd ask his cost-bending advisers this question: how much less would my plans cost if we curtailed the flow of unskilled labor into the United States?