Immigrants cause insurance crisis!(Data) (Brief article)

• Author: McArdle, Megan

Since 1987 the percentage of Americans without health insurance--purchased privately, provided by employers, or provided by the government--has risen from 12.9 percent to 15.9 percent. That figure is often used to suggest a steadily worsening crisis that only government intervention can solve. But the story is more complicated than those numbers initially suggest.

Among native-born Americans, insurance levels actually have been pretty steady since 1993, with a small rise in the percentage of people insured. In that...