People with disabilities are less likely to have private health insurance and more likely to have governmental coverage than people with no disabilities. Paradoxically, disability rates are high among those participating in means-tested assistance programs, yet most people with severe disabilities do not receive benefits from an assistance program. While our knowledge about the sources and consequences of disability has grown markedly, what we know about immigrant health and disability has not kept pace. Given California’s large immigrant population—26% of the state population were born outside the United States—this knowledge gap needs to be addressed.

Among adults who report disabilities, immigrants’ use of medical and support services is roughly equivalent to that of nativeborn adults with similar needs and socioeconomic characteristics. Federal welfare reform in 1996 eliminated Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) eligibility for immigrants during their first five years in the country. This exclusion was based, in part, on a fear that health and welfare benefits acted as a “magnet” to foreigners in need of these services. States that choose to cover these recent immigrants must do so without federal matching funds. California continues to provide Medi-Cal eligibility to immigrants regardless of when they entered the United States, and thus California bears the entire cost of this program. These new findings on the levels of disability and use of disability services among California’s adult immigrants and their U.S.-born counterparts suggest that such “magnet” concerns are unfounded.