California Immigrants Weigh Health Coverage Against Deportation Risk
For months, Maria, 55, caregiver for the elderly in the County of Orange in California, tried not to smile.
If she opens her mouth too wide, she worries, people will see her of the front covered and covered with plate. Immigrant without legal status, Maria has no health or dental insurance. When her teeth start to throb, she swallows pain relievers. Last summer, a dentist said that he would cost $ 2,400 to repair his teeth. It is more that she cannot afford.
“It’s so expensive,” said Maria, who often works for 12 hours to lift customers in and out of bed and helping them with hygiene, medication management and household work. “I need money for my children, for my rent, for transport, for food. Sometimes I don’t have anything left. ”
Kff Health News was linked to Maria through a plea organization for immigrant workers. Fearing the deportation, she asked that only her first name be used.
Maria is one of what estimates of the federal government are 2.6 million immigrants living in California without legal status. The state had gradually sought to bring these immigrants to its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. But now, faced with a freezing of state inscriptions, residents of California at low income in the United States without legal authorization – as well as providers and community workers who help them – impatiently weigh the advantages of advancing media demands against the risks of discovery and deportation by the federal government.
Seeking to close a planned budget deficit of $ 12 billion, the governor of California Gavin Newsom, a democrat, signed a balanced state budget on June 27 which will end the new registration Medi-Cal in January 2026 for those over 19 without legal status.
Meanwhile, federal immigration raids – which seem to have targeted at least one health clinic in the state – are already afraid of some people to consult medical care, say the defenders of immigrants and health providers. And the recent news that Trump administration officials share data on Medicaid registrants, including immigration status, deportation authorities are expected to further erode confidence in the program.
The spokesman for the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services, Andrew Nixon, said that the agency, which oversees the centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, had the legal power to share data to approach “unprecedented systemic negligence within the framework of the Bide-Harris administration which allowed illegal immigrants to exploit Medicaid States like California ”.
To complicate the questions, the Trump administration has threatened to retain funds from states which ensure health coverage to people without legal status. Currently, around 1.6 million people in the country without authorization are registered in Medi-Cal.
In 2016, California began to open Medi -Cal to low -income people with legal status, starting with children, then gradually expanded it to young people, the elderly and – in January of this year – 26 to 49 year olds. The State Department of Health Care Services, which supervises Medi-Cal, has teamed up with community health clinics to help enrolled eligible.
It is too early to say what impact the latest state and federal developments have on registration numbers, because the data is only available until March. But many health care providers and defenders have said they expect a scary effect on the registration of immigrants.
SECIAH Aquino is Executive Director of Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, who supports community health workers – also called promotores – who help to raise awareness of the expansion of Medi -Cal of adults without legal status. Just over half of public health insurance beneficiaries in California are Latinos, compared to only 30% of Medicaid registered on a national scale.
Aquino has said that its coalition will indicate that promotores disclose the risks of data sharing so that community members can make informed decisions.
“They very personally argue that the advice they provided to another member of the community could now injure them,” said Aquino.
Newsom condemned data sharing, calling for “legally doubtful” move, while we sense. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, demanded that the Ministry of Internal Security destroys all the shared data.
The California Ministry of Health announced on June 13 that it was looking for more information from the federal government. The agency said it has submitted monthly reports to CMS with demographic and eligibility information, including name and address, as required by law.
The data on the registrants of Medicaid of Illinois, the state of Washington and Washington, DC, would also have been shared with DHS. Jamie Munks, spokesperson for the Illinois Health and Family Services Department, the State Medicaid Agency, said the department was “deeply concerned” by the news and that the data was regularly transmitted to the CMS, considering that it was protected.
In Sacramento, Democratic legislators found themselves in the uncomfortable position to reduce health benefits for low -income residents with unsatisfactory immigration status, including people without legal status, people who have green cards for less than five years, and some others who are requesting legal status or who have statutes to protect them from deportation. In addition to the freezing of Medi-Cal inscriptions for immigrants aged 19 and over in the country without authorization, all registered residents with an unsatisfactory immigration status from 19 to 59 years old will be charged monthly bonuses of $ 30 from July 2027.
“What I hear in the field is that people tell me that they will really find it difficult to make these premium payments,” said Carlos Alarcon, analyst of health policies and benefits at California Immigrant Policy Center, a advocacy group. “The reality is that most people already have limited budgets.”
The legislator rejected a proposal from the governor to ban immigrants with unsatisfactory immigration status from receiving long-term nursing care and home care through Medi-Cal, but followed the elimination of dental services from July 2026.
Health care providers have said that without medical coverage, many immigrants will be forced to request emergency care, which is more expensive for taxpayers than preventive care and primary level. Sepideh Taghvaei, chief dental chief of denty dental dental care of the County of Santa Cruz, saw this taking place in 2009 when the state reduced the dental benefits for adults medi-cal. The patients entered with swollen faces and atrocious pain, with such advanced conditions that they needed hospital treatment. “It’s not profitable,” she said.
Senator of the State Roger Niello, a republican who is vice-president of the Senate Budget Committee, said that he thought that California should not finance Medi-Cal for those who lack legal status, in particular given the state’s budgetary challenges. He also said that he was concerned that the coverage of residents of the country without authorization could encourage others to move to California.
“If we maintain these expenses for non-citizens,” he said, “we will have to cut elsewhere, and that will undoubtedly affect citizens.”
The Californians also crossed a change of heart. In a survey in May led by the Policy Institute of California, 58% of adults opposed the advantage.
For Maria, the change in health care policies let him feel paralyzed. Since she arrived here five years ago, the caregiver has focused on gaining money to support her three children, which she left with her parents in her country of origin, she said.
Maria did not learn that she could be eligible for Medi-Cal until the beginning of this year and had not yet found the time to fill out the documents. After a friend told her that the state could freeze the registrations in January, she began to rush to finish the registration process. But she then learned that Medi-Cal data had been shared with the immigration authorities.
“Disappointed and frightened” was the way she described her reaction.
Suddenly, she said, registering for Medi-Cal does not seem to be a good idea.
Phil Galewitz and Bram Sand-Smith contributed to this report.
This article was produced by Kff Health Newspublishing California Healthlinean editorially independent service of California Health Care Foundation.
