By Alice Aluoch and Juliana Zhou Immigrants are essential members of our communities, yet they are often excluded from social safety net programs that their tax dollars subsidize for U.S. citizens. This exclusion was not always the case, but it changed in 1996 when federal…
Juliana Zhou: “Once you start to get into the reasons why people aren’t able to access these benefits, oftentimes, it’s not because they’re ineligible. It’s because they can’t find the information they need (...)"
State administrators, service providers, advocates, and parents/caregivers must take proactive steps to ensure that children are not improperly disenrolled from Medicaid when states begin to restart the re-enrollment process in the coming months.
For the past 25+ years, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has barred many struggling immigrant families from basic safety net programs. Fortunately, Congress has an opportunity to end this unjust exclusion with the LIFT the BAR Act.