Quick Guide: National, State, and County-Level Data and Resources on Undocumented Patients

Updat­ed June 8, 2017

The 11 mil­lion undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants in the Unit­ed States live in all 50 states and rely on local safe­ty-nets and state-lev­el pro­vi­sions for health care. Launched in 2011, The Hast­ings Center’s Undoc­u­ment­ed Patients project has focused on under­stand­ing eth­i­cal and pol­i­cy chal­lenges in pro­vid­ing health care access for this low-income pop­u­la­tion, which is exclud­ed from key fed­er­al ben­e­fits and faces uncer­tain prospects.

The Undoc­u­ment­ed Patients web­site is a hub for issue briefs, pol­i­cy solu­tions, and a search­able data­base of research tools on this issue. The fol­low­ing web-based tools have been select­ed by project staff to help pro­fes­sion­als who work in safe­ty-net hos­pi­tals, clin­ics, and health pro­grams learn about the demo­graph­ics of the undoc­u­ment­ed pop­u­la­tion in a state or coun­ty. These tools also pro­vide up-to-date infor­ma­tion on insur­ance, legal rights, and legal ser­vices rel­e­vant to the care of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants and mixed-sta­tus fam­i­lies. Infor­ma­tion and links are cur­rent as of June 8, 2017.

For the basics about the undoc­u­ment­ed pop­u­la­tion and migra­tion trends in your state

Pew Research Cen­ter

• Annu­al reports and inter­ac­tive maps pro­vide reli­able esti­mates based on U.S. Cen­sus Bureau data
• State lev­el data sets avail­able in report, table, and map for­mats
• City lev­el maps and tables avail­able for major met­ro­pol­i­tan areas

For demo­graph­ic detail rel­e­vant to health care access in your state

Migra­tion Pol­i­cy Insti­tute (MPI)

• Inter­ac­tive map with state-lev­el pro­files includes countries/regions of ori­gin, insur­ance access, and lan­guage pro­fi­cien­cy, with addi­tion­al detail for more than 100 US coun­ties (scroll down below map for coun­ty pro­files)
• Fre­quent­ly Request­ed Sta­tis­tics on Immi­grants and Immi­gra­tion is a help­ful quick ref­er­ence

For infor­ma­tion about state-lev­el health insur­ance cov­er­age

Hen­ry J. Kaiser Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion (KFF)

• Annu­al reports on Med­ic­aid and CHIP Eli­gi­bil­i­ty, Enroll­ment, Renew­al, and Cost Shar­ing Poli­cies include state-lev­el infor­ma­tion on eli­gi­bil­i­ty for undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants
• Table 3 of 2017 report lists states offer­ing CHIP cov­er­age to income-eli­gi­ble undoc­u­ment­ed chil­dren using state funds
• Table 4 of 2017 Kaiser report and 2014 Undoc­u­ment­ed Patients Project/Hastings Cen­ter issue brief pro­vide state-lev­el detail on cov­er­age for pre­na­tal ser­vices
• 2016 Undoc­u­ment­ed Patients Project/Hastings Cen­ter issue brief pro­vides addi­tion­al state-lev­el detail on Med­ic­aid access for some undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants

For infor­ma­tion about legal rights rel­e­vant to health care access

Nation­al Immi­gra­tion Law Cen­ter (NILC)

• “Know Your Rights, Know Your Patients’ Rights” resource offers detailed infor­ma­tion and rec­om­men­da­tions for health care providers on orga­ni­za­tion­al process­es to safe­guard patients’ rights and in inter­ac­tions with immi­gra­tion enforce­ment.
• “Know Your Rights” resource on health insur­ance and health care offers detailed infor­ma­tion, in Eng­lish and Span­ish, on the health-relat­ed and Con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants.

Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics (AAP)

• Child Immi­grant Health Toolk­it offers guid­ance on eth­i­cal, legal, and social issues rel­e­vant to health care for immi­grant chil­dren and fam­i­lies, and on med­ical screen­ing and treat­ment rec­om­men­da­tions for new­ly arrived immi­grant chil­dren.

For infor­ma­tion about hos­pi­tal-based legal ser­vices for low-income patients

Nation­al Cen­ter for Med­ical-Legal Part­ner­ship

• Inter­ac­tive map lists par­tic­i­pat­ing insti­tu­tions in 41 states
• Search tools locate ser­vices by health care insti­tu­tion or legal insti­tu­tion as well as city or state
• Resources include a guide for legal ser­vices in farm­work­er health pro­grams

Rachel Zacharias is a research assis­tant and project man­ag­er at The Hast­ings Cen­ter.