Biden administration says 100,000 new migrants are expected to sign up for ‘Obamacare’ next year

WASHINGTON – About 100,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children are expected to enroll in Affordable Care Act health insurance next year under a new directive the Biden administration released Friday.

The measure took longer than promised to finalize and fell short of Democratic President Joe Biden’s initial proposal to allow these migrants to enroll in Medicaid, the health insurance program that offers nearly free coverage to the country’s poorest people. .

But it will allow thousands of migrants to access lucrative tax incentives when they sign up for coverage after enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace opens on November 1, just days before the presidential election.

While it could help Biden increase his appeal at a crucial time among Latinos, a crucial voting bloc that Biden needs to rally to win the election, the move will certainly raise more criticism among conservatives over the president’s border and migration policies.

The move opens the market to any participant in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, many of whom are Latino.

Xavier Becerra, the country’s top health official, said Thursday that many of these migrants had delayed getting care because they didn’t have coverage.

“They incur higher costs and debt when they finally receive care,” Becerra told reporters during a conference call. “Making Dreamers eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and well-being and strengthen the health and well-being of our nation and our economy.”

The administration’s action changes the definition of “legal gift” so that DACA participants can legally enroll on the marketplace exchange.

Then-President Barack Obama launched the DACA initiative to protect against deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, immigrants, also known as “Dreamers,” were still not eligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of having a “lawful presence” in the US.

The administration decided not to expand Medicaid eligibility for these migrants after receiving more than 20,000 comments on the proposal, senior officials said Thursday. Those officials refused to explain why the rule, first proposed last April, took so long to be finalized. The delay meant migrants were unable to sign up to the marketplace for coverage this year.

More than 800,000 migrants will be eligible to enroll in marketplace coverage, but the administration predicts that only 100,000 will actually enroll because some will be able to obtain coverage through their workplace or other ways. Some may also not be able to afford coverage through the marketplace.

Other classes of immigrants, including asylum seekers and people with temporary protective status, are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces under the ACA, Obama’s 2010 health care law often called “Obamacare.”