LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK - Nearly a decade after receiving U.S. citizenship, Guatemalan-born Mayra Lopez thought she had cleared all the hurdles for her parents to join her in the United States.Then on Oct. 4 U.S. President Donald Trump changed the rules she and others had been complying with: Trump signed a proclamation requiring all prospective immigrants to prove they will have U.S. health insurance within 30 days of their arrival or enough money to pay for “reasonably foreseeable medical costs.
Lopez, 40, who works as a family assistant in California, and many others are finding few options exist for them. Tony Barrueta, a Senior Vice President at Kaiser Permanente, said in a statement that a social security number is not required to apply for Kaiser Permanente coverage, but the company may request that information.
When asked about the concerns, a State Department official repeated the guidelines in the proclamation, which are posted on the department’s website.Long term-plans on the state insurance marketplaces are not available to immigrants before they are in the country lawfully, according to the eligibility requirements outlined in the Affordable Care Act , Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation.
Trump has tested the boundaries of established policy, aiming to fulfill his 2016 campaign pledge to curb both legal and illegal immigration, including a yet to be constructed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigration rights lawyers and civil liberties groups have challenged his policies in court, sometimes with success.
The proclamation appears squarely focused at limiting family-based migration, which the President has repeatedly derided as “chain migration,” said Xiao Wang, co-founder of the immigration firm Boundless. Healthcare policy experts say immigrants use the U.S. system less often than Americans. According to an analysis by Leighton Ku, Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, recent immigrants without insurance accounted for less than one-tenth of 1% of U.S. medical expenditures in 2017.
On Oct. 4, Trump signed a proclamation requiring all prospective immigrants to have proof of U.S. health insurance or enough money to pay for ‘reasonably foreseeable medical costs’