Are Mexicans Really Sucking Dry American Health-Care?

If you've been following my series of columns on the Mexican immigrant issue you know that I have been taking the position that most, if not all, of the vitriolic, hysteria-induced, bordering on the racist, rhetoric about Mexican immigrants sucking dry America's health care system is not based on critical thinking skills. But, rather, it is based on general lack of critical thinking of maybe even the majority of the American Public.

This is but one of the anti-Mexican Xenophobe's issues-health care-about which they rant and about which I write.

My whole point in my columns has been that unless one at least attempts to apply the rules of critical thinking, or as I aptly named them in my columns, "Phony-Baloney Detection", that one is doomed to quoting speculative facts and stats that could even border on the deceptive. It is, as I have been writing in past columns, the test of experimentation that cuts through the "cock and bull" of the emotive blustering that always seems to have a wagonload of "proof" to accompany fanatics' axes to grind and points to prove.

Check my past columns on "Phony-Baloney Detection Lessons".

Well, as I have been saying, the test of experimentation has finally come through to cut through some of the Minuteman Project's "cock and bull".

Health Day reporter, Randy Dotinga, in his article, U.S. Immigrant's Health Cost Far Below Native-Born says this:

"Countering the belief that immigrants to the United States use more than their share of health-care resources, a new study finds that just the opposite is true".[1]

Now I simply must point out that this flies in the face of Chris Simcox and his rowdy group of gun-toting cowboys Minuteman platform who will swear to the point of shouting in your face that Mexicans are closing hospitals and taking healthcare away from "Patriotic Americans".

Dotinga goes on to point out,

"According to the research released this week, data suggest that the average immigrant consumes several hundred dollars less a year in health costs, on average, than the typical native-born citizen. Most strikingly, the researchers say that the health-care costs for the poorest immigrant children are 84% below those of native born kids."[2]

I have to ask the Minuteman people just where does this leave them and their inconvertible claims, that they will deluge you with facts and stats to prove, that Mexicans are destroying the American health-care system?

I do not take much pleasure in telling "I told you so" to anyone. But in this case, I take the greatest delight in having my convictions vindicated that this recent uprising of anti-Mexican xenophobia, in the form of Chris Simcox and his motley crew, have more at stake in this issue than they claim and that there is more than meets the eye in their ranting. I take even greater delight in the fact the test of experimentation is cutting through their "cock and bull".

I have been saying this all along!

The article goes on to say,

"According to Mohanty, the research team launched the study to combat the belief that immigrants take advantage of the American health-care system. " We thought there were a lot of popular misconceptions," she said.

The researchers looked at the results of a 1998 federal survey of more than 21,000 people, including more than 2,800 immigrants. The findings appear in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Mohanty's team found that immigrants accounted for an average of $1,582 in health costs per year, compared to $2,005 for the native-born. When the researchers adjusted their figures to take into account possible differences between the two groups due to factors such as age and health status, that gap widened to $1,139 for immigrants and $2,546 for the U.S.-born. Furthermore, a full 30 percent of immigrants used no health care at all in the course of the average year."[3]

And get this:

"Latinos had the lowest expenditures among the immigrants; non-Latino whites had the highest."[4]

I'm telling you there is a lot of "Phony-Baloney" going on regarding the Mexican Immigration issue. Where are your "Phony-Baloney Detection Kits"? You need them to cut through the "cock and bull" in this issue!

[1] U.S. Immigrants' Health Costs Far Below Native-Born By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter

Wed Jul 27, 7:01 PM ET

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

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