VIDEO: Medicaid a ‘protected benefit’ for noncitizen children in sanctuary states

WASHINGTON — Noncitizen children in sanctuary states were nearly 10% more likely to be enrolled in Medicaid after the 2018 announcement of the revised “public charge” rule, researchers found.

The rule denied noncitizens permanent residency in the United States if they participated in public programs, like receiving benefits through Medicaid.

The researchers, including Marine-Ayan Ibrahim Aibo, BA, a student at the at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and her mentor Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP, attending physician in pediatrics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, found that children living in sanctuary states had a “protected benefit” — as Ibrahim Aibo called it in the above video — and were more likely to be enrolled in Medicaid after the rule, whereas participation in Medicaid declined in non-sanctuary states.

“As we head into 2023, one of the things that we're thinking about is how these effects continue to impact children, specifically thinking about the end of the public health emergency,” Ibrahim Aibo said. “Families will have to face re-enrolling in Medicaid for the first time in 3 years. We hypothesize that immigrant families and children may face some pretty specific and unique challenges with re-enrolling in Medicaid, namely because of some language barriers, as well as navigating a complicated health care system.”