Immigrants lose lifeline as states slash health coverage

SACRAMENTO, California (AP):

For nearly 20 years, Maria would call her sister – a nurse in Mexico – for advice on how to manage her asthma and control her husband’s diabetes instead of going to the doctor in California.

She didn’t have legal status, so she couldn’t get health insurance and skipped routine exams, relying instead on home remedies and, at times, getting inhalers from Mexico. She insisted on using only her first name for fear of deportation.

Things changed for Maria and many others in recent years when a handful of Democrat-led states opened up their health insurance programmes to low-income immigrants regardless of their legal status. Maria and her husband signed up the day the programme began last year.

“It changed immensely, like from Earth to the heavens,” Maria said in Spanish, of Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid programme. “Having the peace of mind of getting insurance leads me to getting sick less.”

At least seven states and the District of Columbia have offered coverage for immigrants since mostly 2020. But three of them have done an about-face, ending or limiting coverage for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who aren’t in the US legally in California, Illinois and Minnesota.

The programmes cost way more than officials had projected at a time when the states are facing multibillion-dollar deficits now and in the future. In Illinois, adult immigrants ages 42-64 without legal status have lost their health care. All adult immigrants in Minnesota no longer have access to the state programme. In California, no one will automatically lose coverage, but new enrollments for adults will stop in 2026.

Cuts in all three states were backed by Democratic governors who once championed expanding health coverage to immigrants.

The Trump administration last week shared the home addresses, ethnicities and personal data of all Medicaid recipients with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Health care providers told The Associated Press that everything, especially the fear of being arrested or deported, is having a chilling effect on people seeking care. And states may have to spend more money down the road because immigrants will avoid preventive health care and end up needing to go to safety-net hospitals.

“I feel like they continue to squeeze you more and more to the point where you’ll burst,” Maria said, referencing all the uncertainties for people who are in the US without legal permission.

‘People are going to die’