Thread: Young immigrants, spared deportation, won't get health law coverage

Young immigrants, spared deportation, won't get health law coverage

By Robert PearThe New York Times
09/18/2012


WASHINGTON — The White House has ruled that young immigrants who will be allowed to stay in the United States under a new federal policy will not be eligible for health insurance coverage under the health care overhaul.

The decision has infuriated many advocates for immigrants.
In June, President Barack Obama announced that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, attended school here and met other requirements would be allowed to remain in the country without fear of deportation.

Immigrants defined as "lawfully present" residents are eligible for government subsidies to buy private insurance, a central part of the new health care law.

But the Obama administration issued a rule in late August that specifically excluded the young immigrants from the definition of "lawfully present."

The administration also said, in a letter to state health officials, that young immigrants granted a reprieve from deportation "shall not be eligible" for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Nick Papas, a White House spokesman, said the deferred-deportation policy "was never intended" to confer eligibility for federal health benefits. The White House describes that policy as "an exercise of prosecutorial discretion," allowing law enforcement officers to focus on immigrants who pose a threat to national security or public safety.

Administration officials declined to elaborate on why beneficiaries of the new immigration policy were ineligible for coverage under the new health law. The move might help Obama avoid a heated political debate over whether the health care law is benefiting undocumented immigrants. The possibility of such benefits has drawn criticism from many Republicans.

The health coverage restrictions might also save money, by limiting the number of people who receive all or some insurance from the government. Federal subsidies for insurance under the new health care law are expected to average $5,300 a year for each person subsidized in 2014. The cost is expected to rise to $7,500 in 2022, the Congressional Budget Office says.

The Pew Research Center estimates up to 1.7 million unauthorized immigrants could eventually seek deferrals of deportation under the policy Obama announced in June.

Many of them might continue to be able to receive health insurance from employers, but many are likely to struggle to obtain coverage if they don't have a job that provides it.

Several immigration lawyers and health policy experts have said the restrictions will make it more difficult to achieve the goals of the health law and the immigration initiative.

Jennifer Ng'andu, a health policy specialist at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic rights group, said: "We do not understand why the administration decided to do this. It's providing immigration relief to children and young adults so they can be fully integrated into society. At the same time, it's shutting them out of the health care system so they cannot become productive members of society."

Ricardo Campos, 23, of Wheaton, Md., an illegal immigrant who came to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 12, applied for the deferred-enforcement program two weeks ago. He is attending a community college and said he desperately needed affordable health insurance. After doctors discovered he had bone cancer, he underwent a 36-hour operation in 2009 and was in a wheelchair for a year.

Just before his surgery, Campos got coverage through a state-sponsored plan with high premiums, after commercial insurers had turned him down.

"I want to become a doctor, in internal medicine or oncology, so I can save lives just as my life was saved," Campos said. "What if one day the cancer comes back and I don't have health insurance? That's scary."

Young immigrants, spared deportation, won't get health law coverage

"I want to become a doctor, in internal medicine or oncology, so I can save lives just as my life was saved," Campos said. "What if one day the cancer comes back and I don't have health insurance? That's scary."

He can do what other illegals do - simply don't pay their bills, an option not available to citizens.