According to a report on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children will now be eligible for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges, as the eligibility criteria is set to be expanded.
Two U.S. officials who have been briefed on the matter indicate that Joe Biden will make an announcement stating that his administration will take steps to include these immigrants.
This action will enable individuals who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was established during the Obama administration, to access health insurance programs funded by the government. It is part of a broader initiative by Joe Biden to provide U.S. taxpayer resources to both illegal migrants and their children, which he started in 2021.
The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.
In 2012, the DACA initiative was introduced with the aim of protecting immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents when they were young children. This program provided them with the ability to work legally in the country and also protected them from deportation.
Despite the protections offered by the DACA program, these immigrants were not considered eligible for health insurance programs that were subsidized by the government. This was because they did not fulfill the criteria of having a “lawful presence” in the United States.
Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services aims to change that by the end of the month.
The current move by the White House to extend health benefits and provide financial assistance to illegal immigrants is not the first instance of such action.
In 2021, President Biden redirected $2 billion from healthcare programs that were intended for Americans to help deliver migrant youths and children to their illegal-migrant parents throughout the United States.
That transfer of taxpayer funding to the growing population of more than 50,000 foreign children and youths meant fewer resources for lower-profile American kids, as their diverse American parents struggled with the coronavirus aftermath, cheap labor migration, job losses, housing costs, drugs, or homelessness.
