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DACA ‘Dreamers’ Would Be Eligible for Government Healthcare Under New Rule

By: Michelle Hackman 

WASHINGTON—Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare benefits, including the Affordable Care Act, under a new Biden administration initiative announced Thursday.

A proposed regulation, published by the Department of Health and Human Services, would make recipients of the program—immigrants in the country illegally who were brought as children—eligible for programs including Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change has long been encouraged by Democrats(link is external) and opposed by many Republicans. 

Under existing laws, immigrants can typically only access such federal programs when they become citizens or have lived in the U.S. on a green card for at least five years. Most immigrants in the country illegally aren’t currently eligible for any federal health benefits.

Former President Barack Obama created the DACA program in 2012 using executive authority after Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, which would have offered the young immigrants, commonly referred to as Dreamers, a path to citizenship. The program offers recipients deportation protections and work permits(link is external), which they must renew every two years. It has been mostly closed to new referrals since 2017, when the Trump administration attempted to wind down the program(link is external), kicking off years of litigation.

“For more than 10 years, hundreds of thousands of young Americans have been unfairly excluded from the affordable health insurance they need,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas), who had campaigned for the Biden administration to take the step.

The program is still under legal threat(link is external) from a lawsuit brought by GOP-led states, with legal experts projecting that a case concerning its legality(link is external) could head for the Supreme Court next year. The Biden administration has pledged to strengthen the protections DACA offers(link is external) in the face of that legal threat, and Thursday’s proposal is the latest example. Proposed rules are typically finalized in a matter of months with only minor changes.

The proposal angered Republicans, who oppose both the DACA program—which they consider an illegal use of the government’s immigration authority—as well as expanding most federal health benefits, particularly the Affordable Care Act. For years, Republicans campaigned on repealing the Obama-era health law before failing to overturn it in 2017.

“Biden opened your borders for millions of illegal aliens. Now he wants to open your wallets for them, too,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R., Wis.), wrote in a tweet(link is external) responding to the news.

It isn’t clear how broad of an impact the administration’s proposal will have if completed. Because the criteria for the program haven’t been updated since 2012, most DACA recipients are now in their 20s and 30s, and most receive healthcare through their jobs or through universities. Still, 34% of the nearly 600,000 young immigrants enrolled in the program are currently uninsured, according to an HHS estimate.

Read the article here(link is external).

Issues:Congress