Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The Trump administration has called for a nationwide E-Verify mandate as part of a broader effort to reshape US immigration policy. While several studies have examined the labor market effects of E-Verify mandates, no paper has considered the potential health consequences. Using both the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, this paper finds that E-Verify mandates reduce the probability that an immigrant has insurance by approximately 5 percentage points. In addition to inhibiting access to employer-sponsored insurance, there is robust evidence that E-Verify mandates chill Medicaid participation among immigrants. The effects are particularly acute for likely-unauthorized individuals, likely-authorized immigrants in mixed-status households, and citizen children with likely-unauthorized mothers. Finally, the results indicate that E-Verify mandates increase the probability that an immigrant reports being in poor health.