Government support of illegal activity is lawless and will eventually destroy our great Republic!

 

Biden will expand immigrant access to US health plans

by Conrad Hoyt, Overnight News Editor & Ryan King, Breaking Politics Reporter |

April 13, 2023

 President Joe Biden is reportedly set to expand the health plans available to hundreds of thousands of people who illegally immigrated to the United States as children.

Biden's decision will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to access government-funded health insurance programs such as Medicaid and Obamacare's health insurance exchanges, officials reportedly told the Associated Press. A formal announcement is expected on Thursday.

DACA was announced in 2012 and allows participants to work legally. However, recipients don't have full legal status and are denied access to multiple government benefits given to citizens.

In particular, DACA recipients are disqualified from government-subsidized health insurance because they lack a "lawful presence" in the U.S. The Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to adjust that, according to the report.

Other groups, such as asylum-seekers and people given some sort of temporary status, are permitted to purchase insurance via the Obamacare marketplace.

By the end of last year, there were an estimated 580,000 people enrolled in DACA, per an assessment from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The expansion of DACA has been stymied in courts amid scores of legal challenges. Congress has been deadlocked from enacting comprehensive legislation on the matter.

Biden has long asked Congress to craft a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and expand healthcare subsidies. Roughly half of an estimated 20 million are uninsured, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found.

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration's immigration policies, though there has been some support for DACA. During the last fiscal year, encounters at the southern border eclipsed 2.76 million, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

It is not clear how much the expansion will cost.