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Trump's Medicaid cuts strip refugees and other legal immigrants of their health coverage · Best of: Features

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  Trump's Medicaid cuts strip refugees and other legal immigrants of their health
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  coverage. Written by Mikela Schwetler and Fatima Hussein. This article
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  is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. New restrictions
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  have stripped Medicaid coverage from certain legally immigrated including refugees and victims
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  of human trafficking, as part of broader federal changes
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  to the health insurance program that are expected to force millions off
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  their coverage. The change effective October first cut from Medicaid what is
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  estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people who legally immigrated to
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  the United States, many of whom work and pay taxes in the
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  latest Trump administration policy to target foreigners. The move is part of
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  sweeping changes to Medicaid under President Donald Trump's twenty twenty five tax
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  cut and policy law, with many set to take effect early next
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  year. The Medicaid changes are projected to result in seven point five
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  million fewer people with health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office's
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  twenty twenty five estimate. Advocates say that without Medicaid, people will not
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  be able to afford private insurance and will either delay care or
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  end up in emergency rooms, adding pressure to a strained health system.
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  For immigrants, the cuts could be felt more acutely, compounding the effects
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  of other administration efforts to restrict their access to public assistance as
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  part of a broader immigration crackdown. This is about telling every immigrant
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  in the United States that they are not welcome here and that
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  they should leave, paid Ben Davanzo, a senior strategist at the National
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  Immigration Law Center, which has pursued litigation against they Republican administration over
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  its immigration agenda. Refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and domestic
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  violence are among those who have lost coverage. Green card holders were
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  not impacted. Laurent Biss, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement
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  that immigrants must be able to support themselves without taking from overburdened
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  benefits programs paid for by hard working American taxpayers. D'Avanzo said many
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  people who have lost coverage will likely only realize when they need
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  medical care, but for some the change has been felt immediately. In
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  Tucson, Arizona, Maria Shikan has been caring for her son Jesus for
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  almost five years since a car accident at seventeen left him unable
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  to breathe on his own. He requires a ventilator, a feeding tube,
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  and daily medication, and must be turned once every two hours to
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  stop sores from forming. Shikan said he sometimes opens his eyes. The
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  family is originally from Mexico and entered the US on a T
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  visa offered to victims of human trafficking in 2018. Shakan said Medicaid
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  has helped cover almost twenty five thousand dollars per month of care
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  for her son, which includes a small stipend for her and her
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  husband as compensation for being long term caregivers. She said doctors have
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  explained that even if they both worked twenty four hours a day,
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  they would not be able to cover the cost of his care.
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  Since that day I haven't been able to sleep. We haven't been
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  able to eat or anything. We're wondering what we're going to do,
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  Chokin said. Jesus takes medication that Chakan estimates costs seven thousand dollars
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  a month. The supply runs out in mid October. Without coverage, she
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  does not know how her son is going to survive. Sheikhan found
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  out just days before the cuts that she was losing care. She
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  called the state's Medicaid offices to appeal. Although she is in the
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  process of obtaining a green card, Medicaid coverage would only kick in
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  five years after she is approved. Stephen Camaroda, research director for the
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  Center for Immigration Studies, a right leaning think tank that seeks less
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  immigration, said the administration is trying to nibble around the edges with
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  the October first cuts, finding piecemeal ways to curb immigration into the
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  US. Camarota believes the government should screen legal immigrants for income potential
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  and education, reducing the number who might rely on public benefits once
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  they cross the border. You need immigrants who are unlikely to need
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  welfare, he said, or those with high educational attainment. The administration recently
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  revived a federal rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who
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  use public benefits what could include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers, and
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  others. Shekhan believes the cuts to Medicaid coverage are part of the
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  administration's clampdown on immigrants. She said her son is in no condition
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  to travel. I know that's what he's doing, but as my son
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  is, I couldn't go to Mexico, Shakan said. Millions more will be
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  dropped from Medicaid Medicaid, jointly funded by states and the federal government,
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  has become a political focal point during Trump's second term. The president
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  has pushed to root out what he describes As
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  fraud in the program. In July, the administration deferred over 1 billion
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  in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, claiming there was suspected fraud.
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  Critics argued the move targeted Democratic-led states. As more people care. Cut
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  from Medicaid, the federal government is predicted to reduce program spending by
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  911 billion, according to healthcare research nonprofit KFF. In Arizona,
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  officials said twenty nine thousand legal immigrants were cut from Medicaid roles
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  on october first. In Florida, estimates are closer to one hundred seventy
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  seven thousand. Overall, more than two hundred eighty one thousand immigrants from
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  nine states and the District of Columbia are estimated to lose Medicaid
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  coverage, according to KFF. As more states implement various restrictions to coverage,
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  7.5 million people are expected to lose coverage by 2034, according to
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  analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. Without coverage, people will turn to
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  emergency rooms for are When people delay seeing a doctor, conditions can
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  worsen and become even more expensive to treat. At the end of
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  the day, it, does raise the cost for the States because once
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  you get these people in for something that could have been prevented,
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  they could not go to the doctor because they were uninsured. They
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  most likely will end up at a hospital in an emergency room,
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  said Carmen Feliciano, the vice president of policy and advocacy at Unidos
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  US, a Latino civil rights organization. Anidas US partners with community organizations
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  to help provide medical care, but Feliciano said they already are overwhelmed
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  and would not be able to support the number of people who
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  are going to lose medical coverage in the coming months. We are
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  not going to have the capacity to serve all the people who
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  need it, Feliciano said.