Sec. 2. Findings
250 words·~1 min read·
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Congress finds as follows: Insurance coverage reduces harmful health disparities by alleviating cost barriers to and increasing utilization of basic preventive health services, especially among low-income and underserved populations, and especially among women. Based solely on their immigration status, many immigrants and their families face legal restrictions on their ability to obtain health insurance coverage through Medicaid, CHIP, and Health Insurance Exchanges. Lack of health insurance contributes to persistent disparities in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of negative health outcomes borne by immigrants and their families.
Immigrant women are disproportionately of reproductive age, low-income, and lacking health insurance coverage. Legal barriers to affordable health insurance coverage therefore particularly exacerbate their risk of negative sexual, reproductive, and maternal health outcomes, with lasting health and economic consequences for immigrant women, their families, and society as a whole. Denying coverage or imposing waiting periods for coverage unfairly hinders the ability of immigrants to take responsibility for their own health and economic well-being and that of their families.
To fully and productively participate in society, access to health care is fundamental, which for women includes access to the services necessary to plan whether and when to have a child. The population of immigrant families in the United States is expected to continue to grow. Indeed one in five children in the United States is part of an immigrant family. It is therefore in the nation’s shared public health and economic interest to remove legal barriers to affordable health insurance coverage based on immigration status.