summarizes some of the key trends in health insurance coverage for the 1994–2000
period. As shown in earlier research, the decline in welfare use during this period was
steeper among immigrants. For example, the fraction of natives enrolled in the Medicaid
program fell from 11.8 to 9.9% between 1994 and 2000. In contrast, the fraction of immigrants
enrolled in Medicaid declined by 3.6 percentage points over the same period (from
17.0 to 13.4%). Moreover, the decline was limited to non-citizens—precisely the group of
foreign-born persons targeted by welfare reform. Their participation rate fell by 5.5 percentage
points (from 21.3 to 15.8%). The evidence, therefore, suggests that welfare reform—at
least at the national level—may have had a sizable chilling effect on immigrant participation
in the Medicaid program