Healthcare for immigrant parent
Hi everyone, I am looking for insights from people who either have experience and/or knowledge in the area of finding adequate healthcare coverage for immigrant parents who are applying for a green card and are already in the U.S. What did you do for healthcare before your parent had a change in status to waiting for green card and also during? I find traveler’s insurance to be very limited, and our parent does have some chronic conditions that need to be managed. I am considering just finding a primary care physician that has a lower cost option for people paying out of pocket since for sure our parent will need some meds. Does anyone know if such PCPs exist?
I also read that even after receipt of the green card, immigrant parents will not be eligible for Medicare for another 5 years, but I am hoping that for this period, we could still qualify for Obamacare (unless that goes away) or maybe MediCal, if that’s an option? Please let me know your experiences and what you ended up doing for a parent who DID need healthcare (i.e. not just buying emergency insurance). Thanks!
Parent Replies
Here is information from the state of California about immigrants and eligibility for different public health insurance programs. https://www.coveredca.com/individuals-and-families/getting-covered/immi…
However, I strongly urge you to speak to an immigration legal services program about your question because you will want to understand the current rules about "public charge", the affidavit of support you (or another family member) will be signing for your parents (basically saying you will help make sure they don't become public charges), and what may be coming regarding those rules. The Trump administration recently proposed new regulations that would make it grounds for deportation/revocation of a green card if the green card holder uses certain public benefits, including possibly Medicaid. This new proposal is NOT the law of the land yet and likely will not become law, but you probably want to understand more about what it could mean and which programs it considers public benefits. I don't mean to scare you at all, and this shouldn't stop anyone from getting needed health care, but you want to be informed.
A really great option for your parent would be to visit a Community Health Center. I consult to these organizations, so I'm biased, but they are an amazing and underappreciated resource. Basically, they provide extremeley high level, integrated care -- a lot more than what's available in a traditional doctor's office -- that is targeted towards folks who have Medicaid and Medicare. They receive special federal grants to provide more complex and integrated services. Even though it's targeted to those audiences, they still see everybody. For people with no insurance and with low incomes -- a retired parent would definitely qualify -- they provide the same services on a sliding scale based on income. Usually the fee comes out to be about what you could expect to pay for a private insurance copy, $20-$50 per visit. It's an easy way to get care while you are waiting for the Medicare to come through, and you could continue getting care there once the parent does have Medicare if they like it. You could also purchase insurance for this person (Obamacare insurance marketplace), but I don't know if they'll get a subsidy given their immigration status. The big Community Health Centers in Berkeley include LifeLong, La Clinica de la Raza, and Asian Health Care. If you don't live in berkeley, just search "<CityName> Federally qualified health center" and you'll find a community health center near you. Good luck.
I know that elder legal immigrants can be covered by Medi-Cal if they are eligible based on their assets and income. You could go through Covered California's portal to apply, or, just to be sure that is the right path, you first could contact Legal Assistance for Seniors, a nonprofit organization in Oakland that provides counseling and assistance re naturalization process, Medi-Cal and other issues. Here's the relevant web page: https://www.lashicap.org/programs/legal/
You can bring your parents to Order of Malta clinic on Harrison Street in Oakland. It's connected to and funded by the catholic church. They are wonderful people, almost entirely staffed by volunteer medical professionals - the only criteria to become a patient there is to be uninsured. They don't have any income or residency restrictions.