Legal and Fearful Too

When more than 400,000 needy legal immigrants in Los Angeles County fear applying for free medical care, something has gone wrong with the system. State and federal health and welfare authorities should remedy this, informing legal immigrants of the benefits to which they are entitled.

The fastest route would be an ad campaign in the ethnic media communicating the fact that use of federal safety-net programs like Medicaid, food stamps and the Children’s Health Insurance Program will not increase anyone’s risk of being deported or denied naturalization. Such programs must be delineated from welfare-type cash benefits and long-term institutionalized care, which might indeed affect a person’s immigration status.

Concern among immigrants due to inconsistent implementation of the federal Welfare Act of 1996 built a wall between potential recipients and welfare agencies. For instance, the law contained a clause that required immigrants seeking permanent residency to demonstrate they were unlikely to become a “public charge”--that they would not depend on public benefits alone for their livelihood. That’s a necessary, reasonable requirement.

A study prepared by the Urban Institute in Washington shows that in the past three years approved applications for health and welfare benefits by legal immigrant households in Los Angeles County declined 71%. Now the federal government has announced proposed guidelines and regulations to clarify what constitutes a public charge. This was the right thing to do, but Washington now needs to get the word out.

Providing health programs such as Medicaid, prenatal care, testing and treatment of communicable diseases and emergency medical assistance not only helps the recipients but benefits us all.