Deportation Fears Have Legal Immigrants Avoiding Health Care

[dalton99a]

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona/articles/2018-01-21/deportation-fears-have-legal-immigrants-avoiding-health-care
Deportation Fears Have Legal Immigrants Avoiding Health Care
Advocates for Latino immigrants say legal residents and U.S. citizens are avoiding care and treatment, fearing their information could be used to identify and deport relatives living in the country illegally.
Jan. 21, 2018, at 9:01 p.m.
By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — The number of legal immigrants from Latin American nations who access public health services and enroll in federally subsidized insurance plans has dipped substantially since President Donald Trump took office, many of them fearing their information could be used to identify and deport relatives living in the U.S. illegally, according to health advocates across the country.

Trump based his campaign on promises to stop illegal immigration and deport any immigrants in the country illegally, but many legal residents and U.S. citizens are losing their health care as a result, advocates say.

After Trump became president a year ago, "every single day families canceled" their Medicaid plans and "people really didn't access any of our programs," said Daniel Bouton, a director at the Community Council, a Dallas nonprofit that specializes in health care enrollment for low-income families.

The trend stabilized a bit as the year went on, but it remains clear that the increasingly polarized immigration debate is having a chilling effect on Hispanic participation in health care programs, particularly during the enrollment season that ended in December.

[Ohiogal]

1. Totally fucking shameful.