Legal Immigrant Children Will Still Have to Wait for CHIP & Medicaid

03.09.2010 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Legal immigrant children who have been in the country for less than five years will still have to wait to enroll in the Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid. Yesterday, the Utah Senate voted down Democratic Senator Luz Robles’ bill to eliminate the waiting period for these programs. Robles argued the bill is about health policy, not immigration.

“This is just allowing 800 more children that are legal in this country and their parents are legal in this country to have access to a program that they already qualified based on their income and they are moving toward citizenship, themselves and their family,” she said.

Senate Bill 44 would have allowed the state to take advantage of a three-to-one federal match by extending health benefits immediately to children who are in the process of becoming U.S. citizens. Robles said this would have saved the state money eventually, because they often can’t afford regular doctors’ visits and instead go to the emergency room, a more expensive option paid for by taxpayers. Her bill failed to pass the Senate on a close 13-to-14 vote.