A bill is making its way through the Virginia Senate calling for taxpayers to spend millions of dollars a year providing health insurance to immigrants under age 19 who can’t qualify for federal benefits because of their immigration status.
This proposed program, known as the “Cover All Kids Act” was presented in SB 231 by Senator Ghazala Hashmi.
Last week, when the bill was before the Education and Health Subcommittee, Senator Barbara Favola said, “What this bill does essentially is it creates a health insurance program for individuals who, because of immigration status, are not eligible under federal law to participate in Medicaid.”
She later added that, by law, Medicaid, already covers any emergency care needed by those who are not insured. Nonetheless, she said there has been very compelling testimony earlier in SB 231’s journey to warrant support.
If passed, the measure would provide insurance to anyone under 19 who is uninsured and would qualify for Medicaid if it wasn’t for immigration status.
The bill also requires all program information be accessible for free to those with limited English and those with disabilities, which could include resources such as translators.
Further, the bill says information must be kept confidential and not disclosed for any purpose not related to the healthcare program. That includes prohibiting the disclosure of information for civil immigration enforcement unless the individual consents or there is a legal order, such as a subpoena.
Initially, the bill called for a work group assembled by the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) that included “individuals with direct and lived experience with the program eligibility criteria” and individuals who provide outreach to those who would be eligible. But last week, senators in the Education and Health Subcommittee voted 9-6 to scrap the work group and send the bill straight to the Finance and Appropriations Committee, where it has also advanced with an 11-4 vote.
Projected costs
According to the impact statement from the Department of Planning and Budgeting, there are an estimated 13,000 undocumented children in Virginia who are potentially eligible for these benefits.
DMAS has projected that 4,550 of them will enroll by the end of the first year, if the bill is passed. And 5,590 are expected to enroll by the end of the second year. Those numbers are based on the recent experience from Oregon’s Cover All Kids program.
With those enrollment numbers, if this program is operation on July 1, 2025, DMAS estimates there will be $7.3 million in medical costs that first year. Three years later, those costs are expected to grow to $17.5 million for a year.
As Favola explained to the Education and Health Subcommittee, this bill “sets up a separate state-funded health insurance program” for the undocumented minors.
Therefore, on top of the medical costs, it’s estimated that the administrative costs will be $7.3 million to launch and operate the program the first year and $4.6 million each year thereafter.
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