Immigrants, Both Documented and Undocumented, Are Helping Save Medicare and Social Security

Have you ever wondered if illegal immigrants are actually helping the economy instead of ruining it? I didn't think so either until I read this article. Due to immigrants being younger and healthier than Americans, they contribute more to programs like Medicare and Social Security. Not to mention how much they contribute to job growth thanks to them needing so many. I find that funny because a couple years ago, my mother found it very difficult to find a good paying job because they were all taken. I'm not sure if it was because of immigrants, though.

On the topic of Medicare, the Washington Post stated that they (meaning the immigrants) were the best thing that happened to Medicare as a result of them putting more money in than taking it out. In fact, the article even said that immigrants were contributing $252 billion (my own calculations) more than Americans. To go even further, immigrants contributed $62 more per person to the trust fund than Americans, and claim $172 less in benefits. That means that the immigrants were giving the government $62 more and they got back $172 less than the average American. That's a lot of money. I looked it up, and each American pays $426 if you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for fewer than 7.5. Each month (in 2014) each person pays $104.90 premium each month if your annual income is below $85,000 ($170,000 for couples). If you add $64 to that each month it really adds up. 

In the long run, the article stated that the net $183 billion that immigrants contributed to Medicare during 1996 and 2011 was "enough to ensure the prolonged buoyancy of the Medicare trust fund, which will remain solvent through 2030." That means America is pretty set until then!

You may be wondering, though, what about the undocumented immigrants? For Social Security, undocumented immigrants pay almost $13 billion while only recieving about $1 billion. I don't know what those numbers are in comparison to Americans, but still with those kind of statistics the US is really rolling in the dough! Stephen Goss said "In total, undocumented workers have contributed more than $100 billion over the last decade while living in the shadows." Holy cow! The only problem is, they say that having the undocumented immigrants "living in the shadows" won't really help Social Security in the long run. In fact, they said it would be better to legalize them so they are sure they are all paying into the system. It's ironic, really. Wasn't everyone saying it was bad to have so many immigrants?

The article ends on talking about what I reflected on last: Obama wanting protection and relieving deportation from undocumented immigrants. If you want more on that, check out my post and its article. If you want to read this one, click here.