Lawmakers continue fight to extend health insurance to undocumented New Yorkers
State lawmakers are reviving their fight to make health insurance coverage accessible to undocumented New Yorkers of all ages.
Last week state Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas (D-Queens) reintroduced Coverage for All, a bill that would extend coverage under the state’s Essential Plan to undocumented people with a household income below 250 percent of the federal poverty line. The bill was previously sponsored in the Assembly by then-Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, who chaired the Health Committee.
Advocates failed to get the measure folded into last year’s budget. Instead, Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to expand Medicaid eligibility to undocumented seniors ages 65 and up. (The Essential Plan covers only individuals between the ages of 19 and 64, per federal statute.)
That narrower expansion was projected to cost over $56 million in fiscal 2023 and $229 million the following fiscal year. However, it has yet to go into effect, according to a report in New York Focus. The state Health Department said the planned start date is now January 2024.
Undocumented immigrants are typically ineligible to enroll in Medicaid and other government-subsidized insurance plans, but states can ask the federal government for an exception or fund coverage themselves.
The latter is what happens in New York. The state spends about $544 million a year on emergency Medicaid coverage for undocumented residents, according to González-Rojas’ office. About 245,000 New Yorkers are uninsured because of their immigration status.
Meanwhile, the state has over $9.3 billion in unused federal funds for the Essential Plan, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office told New York Focus. If the Hochul administration sought a waiver from the federal government, it could use that money to provide insurance coverage to undocumented immigrants and save hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid spending.
Hochul does have other plans for expanding the Essential Plan. On Thursday the Health Department released its 1332 waiver request for federal approval to expand eligibility to anyone earning below 250 percent of the federal poverty line, which state lawmakers OK’d as part of the state’s fiscal 2023 budget. The previous income limit was 200 percent of the federal poverty line, or $29,000 for a single individual.
The executive budget proposal for fiscal 2024 calls for higher reimbursement rates for healthcare providers under the Essential Plan and reduced cost sharing. Hochul’s plan would also shift pregnant and postpartum women from Medicaid to the Essential Plan, enabling the state to maximize the federal revenue it receives for the plan.
