Biden seeks to open healthcare coverage for illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in DACA program

President Biden is seeking to expand the eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought into the US as children.

The healthcare coverage would be expanded to include “Dreamers” in the DACA program, according to the Associated Press. Biden’s announcement aims to make nearly 600,000 immigrants who arrived in the US as children lacking legal immigration status eligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs.

“If finalized, the rule will make DACA recipients eligible for these programs for the first time,” the White House said in a statement on Thursday. “Under the proposed rule, DACA recipients will be able to apply for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, where they may qualify for financial assistance based on income, and through their state Medicaid agency.”

The move will permit participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to access government-funded health insurance programs. It continues efforts by Biden that he initiated in 2021 to offer taxpayer resources to illegal immigrants and their children.

 

The 2012 DACA initiative was intended to keep children brought into the US illegally by their parents from being deported and to allow them to legally work in the United States.

However, they are still ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they don’t meet the definition of having a “lawful presence” in America. The proposed HHS rule would change the definition of “lawful presence” for Medicaid and Affordable Care Act eligibility to give DACA recipients access to those programs.

This isn’t Biden’s first attempt at gifting free healthcare to illegal aliens.

According to Breitbart, he “took $2 billion from Americans’ healthcare programs to help deliver migrant youths and children to their illegal-migrant parents throughout the United States in 2021.”

“That transfer of taxpayer funding to the growing population of more than 50,000 foreign children and youths meant fewer resources for lower-profile American kids, as their diverse American parents struggled with the Chinese virus aftermath, cheap labor migration, job losses, housing costs, drugs, or homelessness,” the media outlet added.

The announcement by Biden comes as DACA advocates and recipients await a ruling from a federal judge in Texas who is reviewing the legality of rules enacted last year to transform the decade-old program into a regulation, according to CBS News.

Texas is joining a number of other Republican-led states that are asking US District Court Judge Andrew Hanen to declare DACA unlawful and terminate the policy over a two-year period. The program has been closed to new applicants since 2021 when Hanen first ruled that it was illegal.

The White House claims that the proposed HHS rule is part of a broader Biden administration commitment to lowering healthcare insurance costs and expanding coverage “so that every American has the peace of mind that health insurance brings.”

The President’s announcement gives DACA recipients that same opportunity, as the Administration continues to urge Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers, providing them the ultimate peace of mind they need and deserve,” the White House proclaimed.

CBS reports, “As of the end of 2022, there were 580,310 immigrants enrolled in DACA, according to government data. The program requires applicants to meet several eligibility rules, including having arrived in the country by age 16 and before June 2007, studying in a U.S. school or serving in the military and lacking any serious criminal record.”

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