Now rescinded, Trump-era ‘public charge’ policy may still harm immigrants’ health

The Trump administration ’s expansion of the “public charge” rule — a move that sought to disqualify immigrants who used social programs like Medicaid from obtaining legal residency in the U.S. — led to widespread disenrollment from these programs and left scores of children in California without access to health care in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  What ’s more, say the authors of anew report from theUCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, the fear and confusion that the now-rescinded Trump-era policy sowed in the state will likely have a chilling long-term effect, potentially discouraging the parents of over 100,000 more children from seeking proper pediatric care.The researchers analyzed rates of disenrollment from non-cash public assistance programs that occurred in the wake of recent and previous changes to the public charge rule. They then estimated potential increases to the number of non-covered young people in California.They determined that the number of Latino children of immigrant parents who do not have a usual source of medical care could increase from the current level of just over 64,000 to more than 180,000 as parents avoid enrolling or disenroll their children from these programs out of fear of jeopardizing their immigration status. Additionally, the researchers say, the number who have not seen a doctor within the previous 12 months couldeventually jump from approximately 99,000 to almost 240,000.The public health consequences are ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news