ELEVEN: A bold policy agenda for improving immigrant healthcare access in the US

Publication Date:
07 Aug 2024
Pages:
97–105
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447371410.ch011
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Immigrants are more likely to lack health coverage and adequate access to health care compared to US citizens. By immigrants, we refer to undocumented and documented non-citizens and first-generation immigrants who are naturalized citizens. A primary reason for this discrepancy is immigrants’ continued exclusion from public policies. The most recent example is the historic 2010 Affordable Care Act, the provisions of which are only available to citizens and a specific group of documented immigrants. Since the 1970s, lawmakers have pursued public policies denying both undocumented and recently arrived authorized immigrants access to public benefits, which provide a social safety net for many US citizens. This social safety net includes access to public health coverage, food and housing assistance, and supplementary income for lower-income individuals. And because 79 percent of contemporary immigrants are people of color, this exclusion has racialized implications. As immigrants have become more non-White, public policies have broadened the scope of immigrants’ exclusion from the social safety net, especially healthcare access. Correspondingly, perceptions of immigrants’ of color (non-) deservingness have often shaped these policy decisions. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) established a 5-year residency bar for Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs or green card holders), limiting their eligibility for public benefits. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), also passed in 1996, made both undocumented and documented immigrants more subject to deportation for minor infringements than before. These policies made immigrants of various legal statuses ineligible for subsidized health coverage in the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Despite increasing healthcare protections and extending health coverage access for many Americans, ACA provisions excluded millions of immigrants.

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