Covered California—the state insurance exchange initiated by the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare—just sent out letters informing over 10,000 people that their healthcare is about to be terminated. Why? Because they haven’t submitted proper proof of residency yet.
Over a million people were enrolled this year. Then the exchange took significant worker hours and money to verify the citizenship and residency status of those enrollees. They identified 148,000 people with unclear status and sent notices. Since then almost 140,000 responded. Just over 130,000 are clearly residents and 7,629 are in review. What a waste of time and money!
And now over 10,000 people are receiving letters telling them they are about to lose health coverage. Those are real people, who may have families for whom they are responsible, for whom lack of coverage carries real risks.
The central issue is that the Affordable Care Act really wasn’t about healthcare for all–it was about healthcare for some and increased profits for insurance companies. Obamacare should have provided for all people in the United States; Excluding undocumented immigrants was racist and unjustified.
Undocumented immigrants contribute to this society in a myriad of ways. Without them whole industries and agricultural production would suffer if not fall completely.
Moreover, they contribute money to the government that provides services (like healthcare coverage) they themselves aren’t eligible for. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy published a 2011 study showing that undocumented immigrants paid 11.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2010—just that year alone!
Undocumented immigrant workers—like all workers—should have the right to healthcare, education, housing and a job. It just makes sense that those who produce the wealth, those who make healthcare, education and housing a reality, should have access to these rights.
Covered California: Shred those letters, stop wasting your time and our money and leave everyone on the rolls!
