The following statement can be attributed to Indivar Dutta-Gupta, president and executive director at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).

Washington, D.C., May 3, 2024 – CLASP applauds today’s Biden Administration announcement of a final rule extending affordable health coverage to immigrant youth. This rule will remove barriers in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace to affordable health coverage for thousands of young immigrants. 

More than 800,000 individuals with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have been barred from coverage through the ACA marketplace since DACA’s inception in 2012. Other vulnerable youth, such as those who have been approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile status and those applying for asylum, have also faced harmful barriers to health coverage.This rule is an important step in expanding access to health coverage for immigrant youth, as we continue to work to ensure a more inclusive and equitable health care system. 

Access to health care is a human right, and immigrants deserve the same access to it as everyone else. We are ready to work with the Biden Administration on outreach to implement this new rule, which will take effect in November 2024. We encourage those who are uninsured and underinsured and newly eligible for health care coverage under this rule to enroll in health insurance through www.healthcare.gov. We will continue to work with immigrant communities, alongside health and anti-poverty advocates, to urge Congress and the administration to secure a pathway to citizenship and expand administrative relief options for DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants–including the thousands of youth locked out of DACA–and ensure everyone can access the health care they need.

Note: This post was updated on May 3 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.