On The Path Toward Health for All

DECEMBER 2023

National Immigration Law Center

Background

Every person in this country should be able to get health care when they need it, no matter the color of their skin, how much money they have, or where they were born. It’s really that simple. This moral principle, coupled with clear evidence that expansion of health insurance leads to higher productivity and economic growth, led to a significant overhaul of the U.S. health care system in 2010 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Nonetheless, despite improving access to health care for many, the ACA crystalized the most striking disparity: federal law makes undocumented immigrants generally ineligible for affordable health coverage. Under this post-ACA reality, around half of adult undocumented immigrants and 18 percent of lawfully present adults lack health insurance, compared with 8 percent for U.S.-born citizens. No other demographic is subject to statutory barriers that result in this level of inequity.

NILC’s Mission of Health for All

The National Immigration Law Center is a leading organization exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of low-income immigrants, and we have long worked toward access to affordable health care as a key component of advancing our mission. Since the 1996 welfare law restricted many immigrants’ access to federally supported health coverage programs, we have worked to improve federal law. We advocated for passage of the Children’s Health Improvement Reauthorization Act of 2009 and the ACA, both of which created additional coverage options for some immigrants. And, as co-founder and member of the Protecting Immigrant Families coalition, we defeated a Trump-era “public charge” policy that deterred many immigrants from seeking health coverage and care. We continue to seek reform of the federal immigration and public benefits systems, to include access to affordable health care for all, and the elimination of bars to coverage for certain immigrants under federal programs such as the ACA marketplaces, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Medicare.