What’s Up Docs? Article
Shazeen Suleman, MD, MPH, FAAP
Posted June 10, 2024
On January 1st, 2024, California allows adults ages 26-49 to qualify for Medicaid if they meet income requirements, regardless of immigration status. Many immigrant adults in this age group are the parents of children, some US-born and others are immigrants themselves. Studies have shown that children receive more preventative care when their parents have health insurance. As pediatricians that care for immigrant children, we can help our eligible patients and their families the care they need and deserve by supporting their enrollment in Medicaid!
Things that you can do to help:
- Reassure families that Medicaid benefits are not included in the Public Charge rule and will not affect their immigration process.
- Explain how health insurance, referrals and prescriptions work in the United States, and in your county. In many parts of the world, health insurance is not a common concept and access to specialists or medications may be quite different than here.
- Connect to your county’s human services offices to help them with the enrollment process: you can share their address, phone number and hours of operation.
More information:
- Protecting Immigrant Families: https://pifcoalition.org/
- Keep Your Benefits: https://keepyourbenefits.org/en/na/
Interested in continuing to support immigrant child and family health? Join the Immigrant Child Health committee!