Concurrent with the resurgence of large-scale immigration, there has been an increase in
the number of persons who lack health insurance coverage.4 Recent research suggests there
may be an important link between these two trends. Despite the relatively high participation
rate of immigrants in the Medicaid program, Camarota and Edwards (2000) report that
immigrants are also disproportionately more likely to be in the population of uninsured
persons: although persons in immigrant households make up only 13% of the population,
they make up 26% of the uninsured. Camarota and Edwards conclude that “immigrants
who arrived between 1994 and 1998 accounted for 59% of the growth in the size of the
uninsured population” during that period (p. 5)