NEW CRS Report: Eligibility and Verification Issues in the New House Healthcare Bill

By FAIR's Government Relations group

A just released Congressional Research Service (CRS) report looks at the impact of immigration on the four separate healthcare bills released by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives over the past six weeks. The crux of the report looks at the different interpretations of eligibility for non-citizens and the verification process for immigrants. Of relevance are statistics, highlighted in this report, that show that nearly 60 percent of non-citizens in the United States do not have private health insurance. This includes the 17.5 percent of non-citizens who are on government health care (4.9 percent on Medicare, 11.8 percent on Medicaid, and 0.8 percent on Military/Veteran health care) and 41.9 percent of non-citizens are uninsured (see Figure 1 on Page 6 of the Report).

This report also notes that nearly 80 percent of non-citizens fall below 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. (See Figure 2 on Page 7 of the Report). This is relevant because the latest version of the House health care bill (H.R. 3962) will allow many families, including non-citizen families, to access the subsidies in the bill to buy taxpayer-financed health care. This income limit would make many non-citizen families, making up to $88,200 per year for a family of four, eligible to receive the taxpayer-funded benefit.

To read CRS' full report click here.