What are enrollment and utilization rates for Medicaid and MinnesotaCare among Somali refugees versus other refugee communities?
Executive summary
A Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of ten years of American Community Survey data reports that roughly 73 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota include at least one Medicaid enrollee, and that rate rises to about 86 percent among Somali households with children [1] [2]. Comparable, reliable enrollment figures for other specific refugee groups in Minnesota are not provided in the sources reviewed, leaving direct apples‑to‑apples comparisons of Medicaid and MinnesotaCare utilization across refugee communities unresolved by available reporting [3] [4].
1. Somali Medicaid enrollment: what the data being cited actually says
The most frequently cited numbers come from CIS’s tabulations of ACS survey data: overall, 73 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota have at least one person on Medicaid, and among Somali households with children Medicaid participation is reported near 86 percent [1] [2] [5]. Multiple news outlets and commentary sites have reprinted those CIS-derived percentages, often emphasizing that Somali households are heavy users of welfare programs more broadly—figures CIS summarizes as 81 percent of Somali households using at least one major program [2] [6] [7].
2. How Somali rates compare to native‑born Minnesotans in the same sources
The same summaries juxtapose Somali rates with much lower rates for native‑born Minnesota households: about 18 percent of native households are reported as having Medicaid (one outlet cites 18 percent) while another CIS note points to 28 percent Medicaid coverage among native households with children—figures used to underline disparities in program participation [6] [1]. Those contrasts are taken directly from the ACS‑based tabulations CIS published and repeated across several outlets [2] [8].
3. What about other refugee or immigrant groups?—scarcity of comparable published breakdowns
The reporting and public data links provided do not supply similarly detailed Medicaid/MinnesotaCare participation rates broken down for other named refugee communities (for example Hmong, Liberian, Afghan) in Minnesota that would allow a straightforward comparison to the Somali rates; Minnesota Compass notes that some measures exist for select groups (including Somali and Hmong) but the accessible summaries in these sources do not include a parallel Medicaid enrollment table for others [3]. Minnesota’s Refugee and International Health Program maintains surveillance and demographic data for newly arriving refugees, but the sources here do not extract cross‑group Medicaid or MinnesotaCare utilization rates from that system [4].
4. MinnesotaCare: eligibility and what the sources say about it
State program guidance notes MinnesotaCare helps pay for health care and that immigration status does not affect eligibility for children under 18, but the supplied materials do not quantify MinnesotaCare enrollment by country of origin or compare Somali versus other refugee communities on MinnesotaCare specifically [9]. That absence means the public reporting assembled here can speak to Medicaid participation (via CIS’s ACS analysis) but not to MinnesotaCare utilization differences across refugee groups.
5. Limits, context, and the source landscape
The headline percentages rely on CIS’s analysis of ACS microdata; many reprints amplify the takeaways but do not add original cross‑group comparisons or alternative datasets [2] [6] [7]. The Minnesota Department of Health resources in the corpus provide refugee health profiles and surveillance system descriptions but do not supply the comparable enrollment statistics needed to measure how Somali Medicaid use stacks up against other specific refugee-origin populations [10] [4]. Given those gaps, claims comparing Somali rates to “other refugee communities” cannot be fully validated from the materials provided here.
6. Bottom line for policymakers and reporters
Available reporting documents high Medicaid enrollment among Somali-headed households in Minnesota—approximately 73 percent overall and about 86 percent for households with children per CIS’s ACS analysis—and shows much lower Medicaid rates for native households in the sources cited [1] [2] [6]. However, because the supplied state and refugee data sources do not publish equivalent, disaggregated Medicaid or MinnesotaCare enrollment rates for other named refugee communities, any definitive comparative ranking of Somali versus other refugee groups cannot be drawn from these sources alone [4] [3] [9]. Independent verification using ACS microdata or state administrative enrollment files disaggregated by nativity and country/region of origin would be required to settle the question comprehensively.