Lack of Health Insurance Much Higher Among Unauthorized
Immigrant adults are much more likely than natives to lack health insurance. More than half of unauthorized adults do not have insurance. A principal factor affecting this pattern is that the occupations and industries in which the unauthorized work tend to be those where employers do not provide insurance.
Although poverty levels for children are higher than those of adults, children are more likely to have health insurance than adults. This pattern undoubtedly reflects the availability of coverage through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in recent years. Children of immigrants are less likely to be covered by health insurance than children of natives, reflecting their higher levels of poverty and the lack of insurance on the part of their parents. Here again, the status of the child has a separate effect on coverage as U.S.-born children of immigrants are more likely to have insurance than children who are immigrants themselves. Legal immigrant children, while having high levels without insurance (25%), are much more likely to be covered than unauthorized children (59%). Here, the children are not eligible for SCHIP because of their status and their parents generally do not have coverage for themselves or their families.
Lack of Health Insurance  | Much Higher Among Unauthorized  | Percent without Health Insurance 2004  | 59%  | Children  | Adults  | Natives  | 53%  | (by Parents Status)  | (by Status)  | Immigrants  | 25% 25%  | 25%  | 14%  | 13%  | 9%  | Natives  | Legal  | Unauthorized  | Natives  | Legal  | Unauthorized  | Immigrants  | Migrants  | Immigrants  | Migrants 