The Obama administration has been heavily tracking the sign-ups for insurance under the Affordable Care Act. With a rough start getting the online system working, the Obama administration is facing another problem with getting immigrants to sign up.
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According to Think Progress, the success of the law heavily depends on the enrollment of Latinos who happen to be younger than the general population and also less likely to be insured. The system depends on their health to offset costs of insuring the elderly and sick people. Unfortunately, despite immigration advocates’ best efforts to spread the word to the immigrant population, too many still fear that information they put into the online system will be used against them by government officials which will lead to their deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement came out with a memo last month stating that immigration agents will not use any of the health insurance information to track down undocumented immigrants. However, there remains uncertainty among immigrants as deportation rates are at an all-time high.
The problem with immigrants receiving mixed messages about signing up for health insurance is they are preventing their documented family members from receiving affordable insurance. Although undocumented immigrants are not allowed to sign up for the program, their family members are. There are many mixed families these days that contain both documented and undocumented family members and those who are citizens should have access to available opportunities.
Polls shows that Latinos support Obamacare, but the large numbers of deportations are becoming a larger factor in considering applying for the program. Latino ratings for the President have recently dropped because of stalled immigration reform and deportation rates staying strong. There is clearly an overwhelming sense of disappointment over the unsuccessful attempt at passing the Senate bill, but it remains a high priority for Congress this year as another attempt is in the making.
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