For Immediate Release
January 30, 2009
Bill Allows States to Eliminate Five-Year Waiting Period for Legal Immigrants
SAN FRANCISCO - The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF)today applauded the Senate for voting to re-authorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Senate bill allows states to eliminate a five-year waiting period for legal immigrants to access the program.
"Eliminating the five-year waiting period will allow legal immigrant children and pregnant women to access essential, cost-saving preventive care, rather than seek emergency room care when health problems become too severe to ignore," said Dr. Ho Luong Tran, president and CEO of APIAHF. "The Senate's passage of CHIP is a step in the right direction and we hope that the bill is signed into law by President Obama as soon as possible."
"This is a great first step and good news for families who can be assured that their children will have coverage. In the coming months, as we look at health care reform, we need to ensure that the entire family has health coverage." said Dr. Tran. "Healthy children are raised by healthy families and healthy communities. We need to ensure that we respond to the needs of all residents of our communities, including providing legal immigrant adults with access to public programs."
The Senate bill contains provisions that apply similar citizenship documentation requirements to those imposed by Medicaid. Officials in 37 states have acknowledged that this requirement has resulted in the first drop in Medicaid enrollment in a decade. The vast majority of those affected by the policy are U.S. citizens who live in rural areas, persons with disabilities or African Americans.
"While we are excited about this great victory, we must continue our work to eliminate the citizenship documentation requirements that were included in the bill," said Dr. Tran. "The requirements are proven to block care for all eligible Americans. We can not enact barriers to care for Americans at a time when our economy is faltering and more of us are losing insurance. We also strongly support the elimination of this requirement from Medicaid."
APIAHF is a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting policy, program, and research efforts to improve the health and well-being of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. President and CEO Dr. Ho Tran is a pediatrician and received her MPH focusing on Community Health Services from the University of Illinois School of Public Health. She helped to establish the Asian Health Coalition of Illinois and served as co-Chair of the Illinois Governor's Asian American Council.
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