Health and Health Insurance Trajectories of Mexicans in the US

Abstract

We study how the health and health insurance coverage of Mexican immigrants change with time in the US. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that approximately three decades of residency in the US is associated with a 9 to 11 percentage point (12% to 15%) decline in the probability of being uninsured for Mexican men and women. However, analysis using longitudinal data and fixed effects methods show that time in the US is unrelated to health insurance coverage. Both cross sectional and longitudinal analyses provide evidence of unhealthy assimilation—self-reported health declines slightly with time in the US.