February 8, 2018

From our president, Tung Nguyen:

The next front in the war on immigrants is here with an attack on legal immigrations via a new regulation on public charge. This is the idea that one cannot use public assistance if one is an immigrant—this covers food stamps, SNAP, Medicaid some parts of ACA, etc… In the past, public charge was used to either keep potential immigrants out or as a (usually unenforced) threat to keep immigrants who are here from accessing these services. This is the first time in a couple of decades that it will be used to determine for example eligibility for citizenship, or potentially, for deportation.

This regulation if it is implemented will have two effects—one is of course what will happen with our legal immigrant patients on Medicaid. The other is that the fear of the regulation itself will lead to our patients not showing up for care. Additional implications include, for example, pediatric patients who are U.S. citizen being pulled out of healthcare assistance such as Medicaid or CHIP because their parents are fearful.

Please get the word out by sharing the article.