[rmnunez]

(.25):"The estimated annual cost to hospitals and other providers of emergency health care nationwide for illegal aliens is $1.45 billion.

Confirmed:

Undocumented adults account for about $6.4 billion a year in national health care expenses, $1.1 billion of which is paid from public funds, according to the study by the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica think tank.Tallying health costs of illegals / Study finds immigrants are not a disproportionate burden

Their study was done in California, which also has a border with a large (and even intergenerational) undocumented community. But this is in comparison to what? Rand tells us:

That compares with a total of $88 billion in government funds spent on health care for adults other than seniors during 2000.

Apparently the undocumenteds are generaly younger and healthier than the average united statian health-care user, which I've had described by eminent physicians from that country, as a nation of "advertising-educated hypochondriacs". My hypothesis that many undocumenteds who might need medical attention avoid the hospitals and clinics for fear of getting deported, is not contradicted.

Rand also noted the relative insignificance of health-care costs in terms of the overall 'burden' undocumenteds impose upon the public treasury.

"The public cost of immigration is not in health care," said James Smith, a senior economist at Rand and one of the study's authors. "Why are we spending such an inordinate amount of time debating where the dollars are not? Nine-five percent of the dollars are in schools, not the health care system."