By Sunita Sohrabji | In an 11th hour move, three courts Oct. 11 issued injunctions blocking implementation of the public charge rule, which would deny permanent status to immigrants who have received federal aid and benefits or are likely to do so in the future.
Read MoreBy Stephanie Innes | The adoption scandal involving Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen raises serious questions about how the pregnant women he brought to Arizona were able to get government health care.
Read MoreBy Courtney Cochran | Washington, D.C. (September 20, 2019) — Today, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) joined with Tri-Caucus Chairs Karen Bass (D-Ca), Joaquin Castro (D-Tx) and Judy Chu (D-Ca), along with Reps. Tom Cole (R-Ok), Barbara Lee (D-Ca), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Ca) and Robin Kelly (D-IL) to introduce H.Res. 570, a resolution commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health, or REACH, program.
Read MoreBy Dan Diamond | IT’S TUESDAY PULSE — Where Sean Spicer’s, er, primetime dancing has PULSE wondering: Which Trump administration official is the best match for which reality show? (We already suspect Secretary Alex Azar’s destination.)
Read MoreBy John L. Micek | As our friends at Stateline.org report, the White House wants to relax an Obama-era rule “requiring that medical providers let patients know about their right to language interpretation services — and for people with disabilities, communication assistance such as qualified sign language interpreters or written information in alternative formats for the visually impaired. The administration insists that the current requirements are onerous and costly for providers.”
Read MoreBy Michael Ollove | Ed Zuroweste, a family practitioner in south central Pennsylvania, got a call a couple of years ago from a nearby hospital in Chambersburg. A restaurant worker, newly arrived from Guatemala, had staggered into the emergency room a few days before with severe shortness of breath and coughing up blood.
Read MoreBy Kathy Ko Chin | On Monday, Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services appallingly altered Emma Lazarus’ iconic 1883 poem, “The New Colossus,” at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The poem begins with the phrase, “Give me your tired and your poor” to which Cuccinelli glibly added “who can stand on their two feet and who will not become a public charge.” While Lady Liberty has stood as a beacon of freedom and hope for new immigrants to this country, Cuccinelli reminds us that there have always been discriminatory terms and conditions that determine those who are deemed eligible for this freedom.
Read MoreBy Big Island Now | The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) issued a statement on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, in response to the Department of Homeland Security final public charge rule.
Read MoreBy Sunita Sohrabji | U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Aug. 12 that it has finalized the controversial ‘public charge rule,’ which denies permanent status to immigrants who have received federal aid and benefits or are likely to do so in the future.
Read MoreBy Kathy Ko Chin | Three years ago, I argued that meaningful health care access cannot be achieved unless the federal government takes action to improve services for limited-English speakers, particularly in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. As I noted then, Section 1557 of the ACA makes clear that language should not be a barrier to accessing health coverage or services. But a new proposal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), however, would only serve to increase barriers.
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