Many immigrants may lose health insurance under the ACA

Nearly a quarter of a million newly naturalized citizens or immigrants may lose their health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act at the end of the month.

The federal government is trying to verify people’s identities and immigration status, and Friday is the deadline to submit paperwork.

The National Immigration Law Center’s Jenny Rejeske says people are hustling to confirm their eligibility. But there are only so many ways they can reach out.

“People have mailed in their documents by certified mail, who have also tried to upload their documents online,” she says.

Despite that, Rejeske says, immigrants and naturalized citizens keep getting termination notices.

She says this is an old story for the Obama Administration.

“It’s just been part of the whole of array of technical problems that HealthCare.gov has faced,” she says.

Sonya Schwartz with the Georgetown Health Policy Institute also faults a lack of thorough planning. Why, she wonders, were most notices in English?

“It should have been a higher priority to think about how to communicate to all the different people in America, not just the people in English,” she says.

Apart from interrupting people’s health coverage, Schwartz says basic problems like this have a chilling effect on the millions who remain uninsured.

The federal government says it has whittled down immigration cases by nearly 75 percent.

Even if the deadline passes, Schwartz has a piece of advice for anyone who has received a notice:

“When in doubt, submit your paperwork again.”