Emergency Medicaid spending accounted for just 0.4% of total Medicaid expenditures in 2022, with an average cost of $9.63 per resident, according to an expenditure analysis of 38 states published today in JAMA Network. Although states with higher undocumented immigrant populations paid more than 15 times per capita, the overall expenditure rate rose to 0.9%.

These results suggest that cuts to emergency Medicaid funds will hurt states with large undocumented populations and yield minimal cost savings overall, the authors, including corresponding author Patricia Mae G. Santos, M.D., MS, assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology at the Emory School of Medicine, said in the letter.

Current federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving Medicaid, Medicare a

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