By the close of Washington’s legislative session last week, state lawmakers had added more funding to help reduce health care insurance costs for undocumented immigrants, as the state also prepares to expand Apple Health, its free or low-cost health insurance, to the same population in July.
This year, the Legislature added $28.4 million, nearly twice as much as its first allocation of such funding during the 2023 session, to continue helping the 16,000 individuals who applied for coverage during the recent enrollment period, which ended Jan. 15.
In May 2022, Washington was the first state to file a waiver application to allow undocumented immigrants to buy private health insurance; a year later, the waiver was approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Treasury.
The waiver meant undocumented immigrants could apply for Medicaid or shop for private health care insurance through Healthplanfinder, the website to apply for health care in Washington.
Mixed-status families, or families with different citizenship or immigration statuses, can also purchase private insurance coverage together.
I don’t have a problem with immigrants having health care. I do have an issue with working full time, paying almost $500 a month for insurance (spouse and myself) that’s honestly crap.
I was on obamacare when I had to have 2 discs in my neck replaced. Didn’t cost me a cent. That’s what I want for every citizen in this country.
Same. Currently on Apple Health and it is such a stress reliever to not have to worry about how much a service will cost because the clinic sent a sample to be tested over to someone who is not in network or going to the ER of a hospital that is in network only to find out the ER is a separate entity that is not in network.