Full Citation
Title: Proposed Public Charge Rule Could Jeopardize Recent Coverage Gains among Citizen Children
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2018
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Abstract: the administration proposed a rule that would change regulations governing "public charge" determinations for applicants seeking lawful permanent residence (a "green card") or a temporary visa. 1 Though the new rule explicitly indicates that benefit use by citizen children would not be counted in parents' public charge determinations and that certain groups will not be affected, experience suggests such policy changes can have broad "chilling effects" that lead to immigrant families opting out of public benefits and avoiding interactions with government authorities. Among a range of such concerns, the rule is expected to discourage immigrant families from seeking out public health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for their children (Artiga, Garfield, and Damico 2018; Batalova, Fix, and Greenberg 2018; Fix and Passel 1999; Kaiser Family Foundation 2018; Zallman et al. 2018). 2 Our analysis finds that in 2016, 6.8 million citizen children living with one or more noncitizen parents had Medicaid/CHIP coverage. Overall, one in five Medicaid/CHIP-enrolled children were citizens living with noncitizen parents, indicating that disenrollment from Medicaid/CHIP among even a small share of this group would have large effects nationally. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), this brief examines trends in uninsurance and Medicaid/CHIP participation among citizen children with and without noncitizen parents between 2008 and 2016. 3 Over that period, federal and state-level policies to increase health insurance coverage rates among the general population also
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Authors: Kenney, Genevieve M; Haley, Jennifer M; Wang, Robin
Publisher: Urban Institute
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other, Population Health and Health Systems
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