Coalition Letter Supporting Medical Coverage for Legal Immigrant Children

Dear Members of the Commerce Committee,

The undersigned organizations urge you to include the provisions of HR 1143 -- the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act -- when you mark up HR 4122.

As you know, federal law currently prohibits states from offering federal Medicaid and SCHIP coverage for five years to immigrant children and pregnant women who arrived on or after August 22, 1996. HR 1143 would give states the option of covering lawfully present children and pregnant women who are currently subject to the five-year bar.

We believe that it is a mistake to deny states the ability to provide Medicaid or SCHIP to lawfully present immigrant children because of their date of entry. Moreover, as economic conditions worsen, this prohibition on federal funding will disproportionately and unfairly impact the budgets of states such as Florida, Texas, Illinois, New York, and California that have large immigrant populations. The National Governors Association and the National Council of State Legislators have endorsed this policy change.

Without adequate health coverage, immigrant children are likely to develop health complications that could have been prevented. Similarly, we believe it is arbitrary to deny needed prenatal care to lawfully present pregnant women simply because they arrived after a certain date. From an economic and health perspective, the benefits of investing in prenatal care are well established.

As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, we believe that this ban on federal funding should be lifted. HR 4122, the Commerce Committee’s contribution to the reauthorization process, is, in our view, the appropriate vehicle to address this issue by including the provisions of HR 1143. We thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,