CALIFORNIA: 830,000 IMMIGRANTS COULD LOSE MEDI-CAL AID
An estimated 830,000 immigrants living in California wouldThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
lose Medi-Cal coverage if an immigration reform bill currently
pending in Congress is enacted, according to a study to be
released today by researchers at the University of California at
Los Angeles (UCLA). LOS ANGELES TIMES reports that a "new
financial means test" contained in the legislation would boost
the number of uninsured in the state to 7.4 million, or more than
25% of the state's non-elderly population. Currently, 2.7
million of the state's 6.1 million noncitizen immigrants are
uninsured and 1.1 million immigrants receive health care benefits
under Medi-Cal (Vartabedian/Rosenblatt/Rabin, 6/24).
QUALIFYING RULES: The immigration reform bill would require
legal immigrants to include the income of their sponsor families
when applying for public benefits such as Medi-Cal. According to
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Director E. Richard Brown,
the lead author of the study, this requirement would push most
immigrants past the Medi-Cal income ceiling. Susan Kennedy, a
spokesperson for bill-supporter Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
said, "Legal sponsors of immigrants have a responsibility to be
the first resort for absorbing the financial cost of those they
sponsor. Before taxpayers are asked to support immigrants, the
sponsors should be financially responsible." In addition, SAN
FRANCISCO CHRONICLE reports that under the bill, any legal
immigrant who "receives Medi-Cal benefits for more than 12
months" during his first five to seven years in the U.S. would be
deported (Russell, 6/24).
ONLY WAY TO GO: The UCLA study assumed that immigrants who
currently qualify for Medi-Cal would lose coverage under the new
rules unless they met "one of two criteria: They worked at least
20 hours a week and resided in the United States for 10 years, or
had retired or left a job for health reasons." While the study,
which is based on the Census Bureau's 1995 population survey,
does not say how many of the affected immigrants are in the state
illegally, Brown said that he believes "the majority" of those
who would lose their benefits "are legal residents." TIMES notes
that the Congressional Budget Office predicts that as many as
"one-third" of those immigrants who would lose benefits could
regain them by becoming U.S. citizens (6/24).
MINORITY IMPACT: Dr. George Flores of the Latino Coalition
for a Healthy California said, "This bill is a serious disaster
for California. It will be particularly devastating for Hispanic
and Asian communities" (CHRONICLE, 6/24). According to the
report, 500,000 Hispanics would lose coverage under the bill, as
would 220,000 Asians. Brown said eliminating health care for so
many immigrants would "jeopardize the health and safety of the
general public" because more people will be "walking around with
infectious diseases longer and infecting others before getting
into treatment."
POLITICAL PLAYS: TIMES notes that while President Clinton
is "generally opposed to health care cutbacks," it is unclear
"whether Clinton would veto a high-profile bill that his
administration backs." Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria
Molina is planning to travel to Washington, DC, this week to
lobby against the reform bill, saying that the proposal is "bad
policy" that will "hurt legal immigrants who have been here for
years and played by the rules" (6/24).