Leveraging the President's immigration executive action to expand coverage to the undocumented uninsured population

On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced a series of executive actions to temporarily protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

While the executive actions do not allow undocumented immigrants to gain eligibility for federally funded Medicaid or benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the action still functioned in New York as an expansion of access to health insurance for tens of thousands of low-income immigrants. In New York, immigrants granted deferred action are considered “permanently residing under color of law” and are therefore eligible to apply for state-funded Medicaid if they meet income eligibility criteria. New York City (NYC) officials therefore recognized the President’s immigration policy change as an opportunity to reach a population with insurance rates estimated to be lower than 50%.

Concurrently, the NYC government has leveraged the launch of a new municipal identification card to help vulnerable NYC resident populations, regardless of immigration status  to connect to city services and benefits for which they are eligible. Such services include free or low-cost access to public and safety-net hospitals and clinics and pharmaceutical prescription discounts.

This session will explain public health insurance eligibility for immigrants “permanently residing under color of law” in New York, and will describe novel efforts by a local government to provide direct enrollment assistance to tens of thousands of immigrant residents.