Immigrant Health Care Access & The Affordable Care Act

A recently released report entitled “Affordable Care Act Implementation in Illinois: Overcoming Barriers to Immigrant Health Care Access” demonstrates the need for a culturally competent market place and navigator program that will cater to the complex needs of the immigrant population of Illinois. Luvia Quiñones of the Illinois Family Resource Program and Abdelnasser Rashid of the Illinois Immigrant Integration Institute collaborated on the report. They address the following questions:   

Who are the uninsured immigrants in Illinois?

• Illinois is home to 1,754,808 immigrants. 45% are naturalized U.S. citizens and 55% are either Legal Permanent Residents, (LPR’s), or undocumented. Of the immigrant population:
  
  • 77% are Latino 
• 16% are White
• 11% are Asian
• 30% of the total uninsured population in Illinois is comprised of immigrants. 

  How will the uninsured immigrant population benefit from the ACA?

•  48% of the immigrant population will be eligible for coverage in the state of Illinois.

What are the current and future barriers immigrant families face while trying to access health and human services?

1. Language, literacy and cultural barriers, (Illinois has the 5th largest limited English proficiency population in the country).
2. Complexity of application process and of eligibility rules
3. Logistical and Public Education Challenges  
4. Administrative burdens, (many cases are left open as agencies wait to determine the legal status of a client).
5. Limited computer proficiency
6. Climates of fear and mistrust (particularly common among mixed status families, which comprise around 25% of all immigrant families in the U.S). 

How can IL best serve and enroll the maximum number of uninsured immigrants through the marketplace?

The report highlights the strategies already employed by the Immigrant Family Resource Program, (IFRP). IFRP subcontracts with 37 community organizations that work with immigrant populations, and over the past 13 years has worked to improve the lives of over 425,000 immigrants and refugees by:

• Ensuring that a diverse population of immigrants are able to connect to services through the capacity to communicate in 45 languages,
• Collaborating with community members and state staff to clarify what documents are required for assistance and insurance program applications, AND 
• Engaging trusted community organizations already frequented by immigrant populations and educating them on pertinent issues.

Incorporating these strategies into the Illinois health insurance marketplace will be instrumental in reaching the immigrant population in Illinois.

Click here for coverage of the report in last week’s Tribune!

Toward a More Inclusive, Healthy Union

Two and a half years ago Congressman Joe Wilson called out across the well of Congress, "YOU LIE, Mr. President." If the never-ending news cycles leave you struggling to recall exactly what President Obama was accused of lying about, it was the inclusion of undocumented immigrants in the yet-to-be-passed healthcare reform bill.

Thanks to this comment and the resulting uproar when healthcare reform begins in 2014 undocumented immigrants will be barred from purchasing healthcare on the regulated insurance exchanges -- even with their own money. They won't qualify for Medicaid, contrary to a popular myth. Moreover, many of their legal immigrant spouses, parents, cousins, etc. will also be ineligible for Medicaid. The unbelievably complex rules for immigrant healthcare could easily result in one family having their various members regulated by five separate sets of eligibility rules.

Eventually our nation will need to decide if we really want the people who clean our office buildings, care for our children, serve our food, and whose children attend school with our children to have significantly worse healthcare. Meanwhile, down in Florida, Governor Romney and Speaker Gingrich argue over the laughable notion of "self-deportation" and spar over who the anti-immigrant is.

But Illinois can move ahead, and make sure that healthcare reform is both rational and humane. While we cannot change the enormously complicated federal eligibility guidelines, we can reduce the confusion for families here in Illinois and promote healthcare access to the fullest extent possible.

We can ensure that immigrant families understand what their new healthcare options will be in 2014 by developing an infrastructure of community organizations to assist immigrants to understand their complicated eligibility and guide them towards other options if they don't qualify for or can't purchase health insurance. We must make sure we have a strong, stable safety net that includes not just preventative care but the acute care that left untreated results in high medical bills and throws many low-income individuals into medical debt and hurts our overall economy.

For all those who are still learning English, we can make sure the system supports provides language access so that patients can navigate their healthcare options. Finally, here in Illinois we've made a strong stand that all children should have access to healthcare. Let's keep it that way.

For more info on immigrants and the ACA, check out this IHM Resource.

Written by Joshua Hoyt, Director at the Illinois Coalition for immigrant and Refugee Rights. Follow Joshua Hoyt on twitter at www.twitter.com/icirr

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post.