Healthcare Reform and Immigrant Health
The NAID Center has supported research on access to healthcare by immigrants and the effects of healthcare reform on immigrant groups. Research has been conducted in partnership with COFEM and the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS).
Healthcare & Undocumented Immigrants
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in March 2010 is poised to have a major effect on the United States’ health service delivery system. The most important health care reform bill in a generation will increase access to care, mandate coverage for most individuals, regulate the insurance industry, and provide better, more affordable options to consumers. However, it will do so without the participation of a large segment of the immigrant population upon which this country so consistently depends.
Approximately 11 million immigrants in the U.S. are uninsured, representing nearly one quarter of the overall uninsured population. Many of them stand to gain little from the new legislation. Some will lose ground because of it. While expanding coverage and controlling costs are admirable goals, we believe they are not fully achievable without the inclusion of the immigrant community, and especially the increasingly marginalized undocumented immigrant population.
Most dramatically, the reform prohibits undocumented immigrants from participating in the new insurance exchanges even if they are able to purchase coverage with their own funds. The new legislation also retains a complete ban on publicly- funded benefits for undocumented immigrants other than Emergency Medicaid. These measures will cause undocumented immigrants to become an increasingly large proportion of the nation’s uninsured population.
Approximately 11 million immigrants in the U.S. are uninsured, representing nearly one quarter of the overall uninsured population. Many of them stand to gain little from the new legislation. Some will lose ground because of it. While expanding coverage and controlling costs are admirable goals, we believe they are not fully achievable without the inclusion of the immigrant community, and especially the increasingly marginalized undocumented immigrant population.
Most dramatically, the reform prohibits undocumented immigrants from participating in the new insurance exchanges even if they are able to purchase coverage with their own funds. The new legislation also retains a complete ban on publicly- funded benefits for undocumented immigrants other than Emergency Medicaid. These measures will cause undocumented immigrants to become an increasingly large proportion of the nation’s uninsured population.
