Standing by their statistics.(Inside Track)

A November 15 article in the Los Angeles Times reported on a Rand Corporation study claiming that "healthcare for illegal immigrants between the ages of 18 and 64 cost American taxpayers $1.1 billion in 2000--or about $11 per household." Relatively little in the whole scheme of things.

Jim Smith, the Rand economist who authored the study, said that he wanted to "put some facts" into the immigration debate. The article ends with commentary by Margaret Laws, a director of the California HealthCare Foundation: "Until now, she said, the only sources of information on the costs of caring for illegal immigrants have been anecdotal reports. 'Short of hospitals collecting and reporting data in a way they don't now, there is no other way to measure this.... It is the best thing we have.'"

But the Rand study isn't the "best thing we have." And it is itself completely "anecdotal." Smith based his results on a single questionnaire completed by 2,543 adults in Los Angeles County. This particular questionnaire, as acknowledged, "was not specifically aimed at determining healthcare costs." It also does not account for differences between its results and credible estimates such ...