The Government will guarantee dreamers Medicaid and Obamacare health insurance

By Zeke Miller, Amanda Seitz and Michael Balsamo -

The government of Democrat Joe Biden plans to announce this Thursday an expansion of public health insurance Medicaid and coverage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare) to guarantee that dreamers can benefit , hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the country illegally as children with their parents and are now protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, according to two federal officials who spoke with the news agency The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A group of Dreamers call for a path to citizenship for DACA recipients on June 15, 2022 in Fresno, California. Fresno Bee / TNS

The DACA initiative, approved in 2012 by former Democratic President Barack Obama, protects against deportation and allows Dreamers to work, but does not allow them to access government health coverage plans because they do not meet the condition of "legal presence" in the United States. States, a rule that the Department of Health (HHS) seeks to have changed by the end of the month.

Several states (such as New York, California, Massachusetts, and Minnesota) and the District of Columbia offer medical coverage to Dreamers through state or locally funded insurance, and in most cases Medicaid.

But there are many others that don't.

The decision comes as DACA is once again in jeopardy in the courts due to conservative legal challenges, and when the number of people eligible for this initiative is already being reduced by previous court decisions.

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Some 580,000 people were still protected by this program at the end of 2022, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a lower number than in previous years.

Court orders currently prevent the Department of Homeland Security from processing new applications.

DACA has been embroiled in legal battles for years, but Congress has been unable to reach consensus on a reform that would give Dreamers a way out.

DACA recipients can legally work and pay taxes, but they do not have legal status and cannot access many benefits available to US citizens and foreign nationals living in the United States.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people signed up for Medicaid, the program that provides health coverage to the poorest citizens.

The Government increased federal subsidies to reduce the cost of insurance with Obamacare.

Last year, 8% of the population lacked medical coverage, according to the Department of Health.

But DACA recipients, as well as those in the country irregularly, are barred from accessing those federally funded programs.

In addition, about half of the estimated 20 million immigrants living in the United States without legal documentation are uninsured, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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While there is bipartisan support for enacting some form of protection for immigrants, negotiations have repeatedly failed over debates over border security and whether expanding protections could encourage others to try to enter the United States without permission.

Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to find a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

Other immigrants, such as asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, can already buy insurance through Obamacare.