What share of private health insurance premiums are paid by undocumented immigrants in 2025?

1. What the sources do say about eligibility and purchasing power

Multiple expert and government-linked analyses state plainly that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, or federal Marketplace premium tax credits and, in many cases, cannot use the federal Marketplace to purchase plans—even at full cost—so their direct participation in federally subsidized private insurance markets is legally constrained ^{[1] [4] [2] [3]}. That legal exclusion means any premium dollars flowing from undocumented people will be driven by state programs, employer coverage, or private direct-purchase outside the federal Marketplace, rather than by federal-subsidized Marketplace enrollment ^{[5] [6]}.

2. State-level exceptions and programs complicate any national share calculation

Several state programs extend coverage or subsidies to immigrants regardless of status — for example, state-run programs in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oregon, and Washington offer various forms of coverage or Marketplace-like subsidies to people who are undocumented, though the scope and funding differ by state and have changed through 2025 ^{[7] [5] [6] [8] [9]}. Those state programs mean premiums paid by undocumented people will be concentrated in a handful of states and not distributed evenly across the national private insurance market, making a single national “share” difficult to derive solely from federal data ^{[8] [9]}.

3. Researchers note undocumented immigrants contribute to premiums but use fewer services

Analyses cited by KFF and the Congressional Research Service find that immigrants—including undocumented people—tend to have lower per-capita health spending than U.S.-born people and therefore, when insured, often contribute more in premiums and taxes relative to the health services they use; KFF’s review of 2021 data showed immigrants’ annual per-capita health expenditures were about two-thirds those of U.S.-born citizens, and other work says immigrants “help subsidize the U.S.” system ^{[10] [11]}. These findings point to a qualitative contribution to premium pools but do not translate into a quantitative share attributable to undocumented people specifically ^{[10] [11]}.

4. Why you won’t find a clean 2025 percentage in these sources

None of the provided sources publish a national estimate of “share of private premiums paid by undocumented immigrants in 2025.” The federal exclusion from Marketplace subsidies, the mix of state programs, varying ability to buy direct private plans, and divergent usage patterns mean available datasets and policy analyses cited here stop short of producing a single nationwide premium-share figure (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [2] [9] [8]}.

5. What data would be needed for a credible estimate — and where the gaps are

A defensible national share would require: (a) counts of undocumented people with private coverage by type (employer-sponsored, state-funded, privately purchased), (b) the average premiums paid by those subgroups, and (c) national private-market premium totals for 2025. The cited works provide pieces—estimates of population, eligibility rules, and per-capita spending differences—but do not assemble those inputs into the requested percentage, and they note state program changes that alter the denominator and numerator unpredictably ^{[10] [8] [12]}.

6. Competing perspectives and policy motives to watch

Advocacy groups (e.g., NILC) emphasize that undocumented people have long paid taxes and contributed to funding public programs while being excluded from benefits; think tanks and government analyses emphasize legal ineligibility for federal subsidies and the effect of recent 2025 legislation that reduced access for lawfully present immigrants—both frames influence how readers interpret “who pays” vs. “who benefits” and can be used to support different policy agendas ^{[13] [12] [14]}. State programs that extend coverage to undocumented people are often framed by state officials as filling gaps in care, while critics point to cost and budget trade-offs; both positions appear across the reporting ^{[7] [8]}.

7. Bottom line for your question

Available sources do not provide a published national percentage of private-market premiums paid by undocumented immigrants in 2025; they instead document legal exclusions at the federal level, varied state programs that allow some undocumented people to be covered or buy plans, and research indicating immigrants generally spend less on care per capita than U.S.-born residents (not found in current reporting for the specific share) ^{[1] [9] [10]}. If you want a numerical estimate, the next step is a targeted empirical exercise combining state enrollment rolls, insurer premium reports, and survey estimates of undocumented coverage—data elements not assembled in the sources above.