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More than 8 million people have enrolled for health care under the Affordable Care Act, far exceeding original goals. But the countrys nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants are largely without health care and dont qualify to apply for it at HealthCare.gov. Their needs are caught between health care policy and immigration reform, two deeply partisan issues.

Some critics of the law argue that it further excludes undocumented immigrants one of the fastest growing populations in the country while others say opening access to this population would put an undue financial burden on public and government institutions, especially hospitals.

A new study published by the journal Health Affairs examines how often undocumented immigrants in California used health services to see if these conservative talking points held true.

We looked at emergency rooms, because some say that emergency rooms are over or misused by some groups versus others, said the studys primary author, Nadereh Pourat, director of research at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

PBS NewsHour spoke with Pourat last week about her research.

NEWSHOUR: How do undocumented immigrants in California use health care?

Photo by Rick Brian/UCLA Health

And we found that uninsured undocumented (populations) use fewer services than other uninsured populations. Even undocumented immigrants who were in insured surprisingly dont use services more or as much as insured documented groups. Youre looking at a systematic lower level of use. And when you see theyre using lower levels of care, you have to ask yourself, Why is that? Why would that be? We speculate that lower levels of utilization have to do with other unmeasured barriers. There are other issues going on that keep undocumented immigrants from using health care.

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Whats holding undocumented immigrants back from seeking health care?