Using data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, this study compared access to health care, use of services, and health care experiences for Mexicans and other Latinos by citizenship and immigrant authorization status. 

It has been estimated that 8.4 million of the 10.3 million undocumented individuals in the United States are Latino, including 5.9 million from Mexico and 2.5 million from other Latin American countries. Undocumented immigrants have been the recent focus of intense policy debate, resulting in the signing of the Border Fence Act in October 2006 and deliberation of immigration reform by the 110th Congress. One recurrent theme in the debate over immigration has been the use of public services, including health care. Proponents of restrictive policies have argued that immigrants overuse services, placing an unreasonable burden on the public.2,3 Despite a scarcity of well-designed research into these questions regarding immigrants, use of resources continues to be a part of the public debate. Furthermore, little empirical information is offered in the literature about experiences with health care for undocumented immigrants.

In this large sample of more than 40,000 individuals, undocumented Mexicans and other undocumented Latinos reported less use of health care services and poorer experiences with care compared with their US-born counterparts, after adjustment for confounders in multivariate analyses.