Connecticut state officials say they’re looking for ways to eliminate barriers to health care access for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program (DACA).
That comes as advocates say undocumented immigrants face significant hurdles when getting health care in Connecticut.
State Attorney General William Tong and Comptroller Sean Scanlon hosted a roundtable conversation Tuesday featuring advocates and health care professionals.
Juliana Garcia, a college organizer with CT Students for a Dream, highlighted what is at stake for people like her.
“To what extent am I, an undocumented — a DACA recipient — allowed to dream? What extent can I feel that I'm in charge of my own life,” Garcia said, directing her question to other panelists, as well as Tong and Scanlon.
One of the panelists, Luis Luna, coalition manager for Husky 4 Immigrants, said that since Connecticut expanded Medicaid eligibility from 12 to 15 years old during the most recent legislative session, roughly 5,500 new children have enrolled in the program.
When asked by Tong and Scanlon what they can do to help, Luna referenced his organization's thwarted effort during the last Connecticut legislative session to expand Medicaid access to those up to 26 years old regardless of immigration status.
“Help us build the support, especially in the House, where we didn't have the support to expand further,” Luna said.
Sister Mary Ellen Burns, executive director at Apostle Immigrant Services in New Haven, pointed to another significant barrier to care: continued discrepancies between what qualifies people for emergency Medicaid coverage in Connecticut versus other states.
“One of the things that we've gotten calls about multiple times is dialysis. And the only advice I can give people is move to New York, because in New York that's an emergency,” Burns said.
Recently, Tong supported a new rule with a coalition of states aimed at expanding Medicaid and Affordable Care Act eligibility for DACA recipients.
There are about 3,100 active DACA recipients in Connecticut, and 580,000 across the U.S., according to federal immigration officials. People who are eligible for DACA are much more likely to be uninsured compared to those born in the U.S., according to KFF.
