http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/060117_nd.htm

January 17, 2006
National Data, By Edwin S. Rubenstein
Immigration Implies Higher Health Care Costs

They come in uninsured and often with infectious diseases But, because new immigrants are generally younger than natives, on a per capita basis they utilize 55 percent less health care ($1,139 vs. $2,546 per capita.) This was the conclusion of Dr. Sarita A. Mohanty of USC [send her email] in a study she did for the express purpose of making immigrant health care costs look good.

However, thereafter things get worse, not for the first time in the immigration debate. Long-term exposure to U.S. culture appears to be dangerous to immigrant health, and to the health of their U.S.-born children. Result: Immigration-imported health care costs are a ticking time bomb.

Obesity: Some 8 percent of immigrants who have lived here for less than a year are obese. But this jumps to 19 percent among those who have been here for at least 15 years. [Obesity Among US Immigrant Subgroups by Duration of Residence, Journal of the American Medical Association]

(The figures are adjusted for the increased age of the immigrant over that time.) These trends “may reflect acculturation and adoption of the U.S. lifestyle, such as increased sedentary behavior and poor dietary patterns. They may also be a response to the physical environment of the United States, with increased availability of calorically dense foods and higher reliance on labor-saving technologies, � according to the Associated Press. [Immigrants fatten up after years in U.S. By Lindsey Tanner December 15, 2004]

Our Super-size-me culture is not the only culprit, however: “For example, there is some evidence that Latina women in general (regardless of immigration status) may have a higher threshold than Whites for their definition of, and concern about, overweight. Some immigrant populations may view weight gain as a sigh of good health,� according to a public health study done at the University of Chicago.[Namratha R. Kandula, et al., “Assuring the Health of Immigrants: What the Leading Health Indicators Tell Us,� Annual Review of Public Health, April 2004]

Treating an obese person cost $1,244 more than treating a normal weight individual in 2002 (the latest year of available data)..

Diabetes: Obesity increases the risk of acquiring diabetesâ€â€