The clinicians and leaders of U.S. patient care organizations continue to find themselves in a kind of policy limbo around the data and information they share with federal and state authorities around their medical care for undocumented immigrants, a new report in Kaiser Health News finds.
As Ana B. Ibarra wrote in a new report in Tuesday’s Kaiser Health News, “While the Trump administration decides whether to adopt a controversial policy that could jeopardize the legal status of immigrants who use public programs such as Medicaid, doctors and clinics are torn between informing patients about the potential risks and unnecessarily scaring them into dropping their coverage or avoiding care.” In her story, Ibarra quoted Tara McCollum Plese, chief external affairs officer at the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, which represents 176 clinics, as saying, “We are walking a fine line. Until there is confirmation this indeed is going to be the policy, we don’t want to add to the angst and the concern.” However, if immigrants do come to a clinic wondering whether using Medicaid can affect their legal status, trained staff members will answer their questions, Plese told Ibarra.
Patient care organization leaders are working to figure out how to handle the situation, with some providers deciding to prepare their patients for the potential enactment of the proposal. At Asian Health Services, a clinic group that serves Alameda County, Calif., staff members pass out fact sheets about the proposed changes, provide updates via their patient newsletter and host workshops where patients can speak to legal experts in several Asian languages. “We can’t just sit back and watch,” CEO Sherry Hirota told Ibarra. “We allocate resources to this because that’s part of our job as a community health center — to be there not only when they’re covered, but to be there always,” even when that coverage is in jeopardy, she said.
The proposed “public charge” rule, which is awaiting final action by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would allow the federal government to consider immigrants’ use of an expanded list of public benefit programs including Medicaid, CalFresh and Section 8 housing as a reason to deny lawful permanent residency — also known as green card status. Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people. Currently, people are considered public charges if they rely on cash assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income) or need federal help paying for long-term care.
