Advocacy Needed on Health Care for Immigrants
From the National Immigration Law Center:
Ask Congress and the President to Enact Health Care Reform that Includes Immigrants
We are calling on progressive leaders who care about immigrants to make three phone calls before February 25th to register the urgency of enacting health care reform that provides affordable health insurance to more families, including immigrants.
Please call the White House, Senate Leader Reid, and House Speaker Pelosi to urge the passage of health care reform that does not punish immigrants. Specifically, insist that health care reform:
1) remove the 5-year waiting period for legal immigrants in Medicaid; and
2) allow undocumented immigrants to purchase private health insurance through the Exchange.
These calls will have the greatest impact if made by your executive director or board chair. This is perhaps our final opportunity to influence health care reform in support of fair and inclusive policies.
On February 25, 2010, the White House will host a health care reform summit with Congress, and Democratic leaders may act soon after to pass significant health legislation. While there are many promising policies being considered, the current design of health reform legislation excludes many legal immigrants and hurts undocumented immigrants. We have a chance to speak with a unified voice to demand fair, economically sound fixes in any health care reform legislation that moves forward in order to protect immigrants.
Take Action
Call your contacts in the offices of these three leaders, or call the following phone numbers and leave a message. Please make these calls before the health summit on Thursday, February 25.
1) President Barack Obama, The White House, 202-456-1414
2) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), 202-225-0100
3) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), 202-224-3542
In addition, it would be helpful for leadership of your organization to share the same message with the following health reform policymakers within the Democratic majority (a general phone number for Congress is 202-224-3121): Senators Baucus (MT) and Harkin (IA), and Representatives Van Hollen (MD), Clyburn (SC), Waxman (CA), Rangel (NY), Miller (CA), and Becerra (CA).
Background
The current state of play is extremely concerning for immigrants. It is likely that the Senate-passed bill (HR 3590) will be the foundation of final health care reform legislation. Unfortunately, the Senate bill falls short on immigrant inclusiveness, which is why your calls are urgently needed now. There is still an opportunity to improve health care equity for immigrants.
The Senate bill includes the following policies that hurt immigrants:
• Fails to remove the 5 year waiting period for legal immigrants in Medicaid.
• Prohibits undocumented immigrants from purchasing health insurance at full cost in the newly-created private health insurance Exchanges.
• Prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving tax credits and non-emergency health care programs such as Medicaid and CHIP.
• Fails to ensure that residents from Compact Free Association territories are eligible for Medicaid.
After more than a year of bi-partisan committee hearings, negotiations, and floor debates, both the House and Senate had passed landmark legislation before the December recess and had begun to discuss how to merge the two bills. The goal was to pass health care reform legislation for the President’s signature before the State of the Union address. However, the January special election in Massachusetts left the majority party without a needed 60-vote margin, forcing the Democratic leadership to seek other paths to enactment of health care reform. Public opinion polls show that many voters recognize the need to improve America’s health care system, and support for reform remains strong.
The President is committed to finishing health care reform and has scheduled a White House health care summit for February 25, 2010 and invited leadership from both parties to attend. The summit will be televised on CSPAN. It is likely Democratic leadership or the President will present an initial proposal for discussion prior to the summit. However, advocates anticipate that further compromises will be made in order to pass health care reform legislation, which may move through Congress quickly after the summit.
Everyone needs health care to achieve the American Dream. Our political leaders need to ensure immigrants have the same opportunities to reach that dream.
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