LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Undocumented immigrants in the United States use less healthcare services than U.S. citizens, a study found.
Alexander N. Ortega of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues analyzed data from a 2003 telephone survey of 42,044 California residents designed to represent the state's entire population.
The researchers found that a 1,317 participants were undocumented Mexicans; 2,851 were U.S.-born Mexicans, 271 were undocumented Latinos from other countries and 852 were other Latinos born in the United States.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found undocumented Mexicans had 1.6 fewer physician visits in the past year than Mexicans born in the United States, while other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts.
"Low rates of use of healthcare services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants' overuse of the healthcare system," the researchers said in a statement.
Concern that undocumented immigrants place a disproportionate burden on the healthcare system is a main argument offered by proponents of stricter immigration law enforcement.
