Additional author: Julian Teixeira, GMMB

Over the past year, the Biden administration has made improving access to coverage and care a core policy priority across Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare and the Marketplace, with a particular focus on low-income populations.

Despite the administration’s proactive steps to fund outreach, promote affordable health coverage and simplify enrollment processes for federally funded health coverage, a key barrier remains: Many immigrants and their families are concerned that enrolling in Medicaid/CHIP, the Marketplace and other public health insurance programs will run afoul of public charge rules and jeopardize their immigration status.

In “Reshaping the Narrative on Public Charge to Reach Immigrant Populations That Need Affordable Health Insurance,” a new issue brief prepared for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health and Value Strategies program, Manatt Health provides an overview of the status of public charge policy—which the administration is currently in the process of updating—and presents strategies to help connect eligible individuals to affordable coverage. For more background on public charge policy and a brief overview of the administration’s new proposed rule, see the recent Manatt newsletter.

To download the full issue brief, click here.

This issue brief is the third in a series, “Supporting Health Equity and Affordable Health Coverage for Immigrant Populations,” that covers health equity and affordable health coverage for immigrant populations. Click here to read the first issue brief, on state-funded affordable coverage programs for immigrants, and here to read the second issue brief, on the CHIP coverage option for pregnant immigrants and their children.