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“Viewpoints” | Immigrants and Health Care – The Real Numbers and Policy Implications

By: Marc Rosenblum

As the House and Senate move toward the final outlines of health care reform legislation, they confront important questions about how proposals might apply to immigrants. There is consensus that unauthorized immigrants be excluded from the benefits of health reform, but lawmakers face two other critical decisions regarding immigrants: whether recent legal immigrants should be eligible for Medicaid and/or subsidies, and how to verify that unauthorized immigrants cannot access the new programs. The most important eligibility question concerns recent legal immigrants (lawful permanent residents, or LPRs) who have had their visas ...