Alabama immigrants known as Dreamers just lost their health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. A federal judge in North Dakota ruled in favor of nineteen states who filed a lawsuit that immigrants brought to U.S. illegally as children aren’t entitled to coverage through what’s known as Obamacare. The decision deals a setback to a Biden administration rule that was estimated to allow almost one hundred and fifty thousand immigrants to enroll for coverage.
Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued the order Monday from Bismarck, dealing a setback to a Biden administration rule that was estimated to allow 147,000 immigrants to enroll for coverage. Traynor’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed over the policy and will remain in effect until the matter can go to trial.
The ruling applies to immigrants in Alabama and eighteen other states where Republican attorneys general sued to avoid having to comply with the new policy. They cited concern over immigrants possibly qualifying for public subsidies available to many people insured under the ACA.
The GOP state officials argued that the rule created earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would be a strong incentive for immigrants to remain in the U.S. illegally and could creating costs for states. They argued that both the Affordable Care Act and a 1996 law prohibit U.S. government benefits flowing to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“Dreamers” are part of a program that makes them a low priority for deportation. However, President-elect Donald Trump won this year’s election promising “the largest mass deportation program in history.” He will succeed President Joe Biden on January twentieth.
Traynor, a Trump appointee during his first term in office, concluded through what he called “a common-sense inference” that access to subsidized ACA coverage is a powerful incentive for people to remain in the U.S. illegally, creating a substantial risk that states will “suffer monetary harm.”
Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is living in the U.S. legally, but, Traynor wrote, “It by no means allows the agency to circumvent congressional authority and redefine the term ‘lawfully present.'” The agency said that it is reviewing the lawsuit but does not comment on litigation.
Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said some “Dreamers” have been waiting for more than a decade to get “life-sustaining” health coverage through the ACA.
“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both disappointing and wrong on the law,” Espíritu said, promising his group would continue to fight the issue.
But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “a victory for the rule of law.” He told reporters after a hearing in Bismarck in October that the Biden administration sought to redefine what it means to be an immigrant living in the U.S. legally by “executive fiat,” calling the rule “Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added then that American taxpayers, through Congress, determine how the federal government treats immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“And it doesn’t always come across as friendly and nice and cuddly, but it speaks to the access to our health care system, the cost of our health care system, and the burden on the American public, the taxpayer,” he said.
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in August. They’ve been joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=6759561f8fa446a48527e9ca18dee53b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apr.org%2Fnews%2F2024-12-10%2Falabama-dreamers-no-longer-eligible-for-the-affordable-care-act-for-now&c=3589695819932328901&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-12-10 10:08:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.