Emergency Medicaid spending for undocumented immigrants in the US

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About The Study: 

In this nationwide analysis, emergency Medicaid accounted for only a small fraction of total Medicaid expenditures. Although states with larger undocumented populations spent approximately 15 times more per capita, emergency Medicaid still constituted less than 1% of overall Medicaid spending even in states with large undocumented populations, posing a limited fiscal burden on Medicaid. These results suggest that cuts to emergency Medicaid will produce minimal overall cost savings and will disproportionately harm states with large undocumented populations.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Patricia Mae G. Santos, MD, MS, email patricia.mae.garcia.santos@emory.edu.

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(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.18709)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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JAMA