Many Latinos in this country are holding back from signing up for health insurance because of the potential repercussions it could possibly have. Citizens who qualify for government-subsidized health insurance fear that by providing personal information on their application, loved ones who are undocumented, might be at risk of deportation.
Adonias Arevalo, a 22-year-old whose parent’s migrated to the U.S. illegally said, “They are afraid. The majority of families, they know it’s something they need to do…They’re just afraid of putting themselves out like that.”
The federal government and immigrant advocates have been working hard to reassure families that personal information submitted in applications will not be shared with federal agencies. It is well known that the success of the new health care law has heavy weight on how many immigrant families actually sign up for coverage.
Approximately 9 million people in the U.S. belong to immigrant families in which at least one child is a citizen, according to the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project.
Immigrant families tend to be young and healthy and are very attractive to the health care program because of this. The program depends on young applicants to pay premiums to assist in covering older citizens who need more expensive care.
To ease these fears, Immigration and Customs Enforcement clarified any misunderstanding about this, explaining that information obtained through health care registration would not be used to pursue immigration cases against anyone in the country illegally.
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