Health insurance requirement for immigrant visa applicants

President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation ordering consular officers to require greencard applicants to show proof that they are able to afford health insurance or that they have enough financial means to pay for medical expenses once in the US.

This new executive order prevents new immigrants, who are understandably uninsured in the first few months of entering the US, from using the government-funded healthcare system. This proclamation takes effect November 3, 2019 but the details on how this gets implemented are very unclear and it is anticipated to be chaotic. Various government agencies are still scrambling to create regulations in order to provide directions for consular officers around the world.

While there have been no clear guidelines issued yet, what is certain is that there will be lawsuits filed against this order. As with any other previous orders by Trump, this new decree will be met with forceful resistance from immigrant advocates. Once the courts are in play, all the more that the implementation of this order gets delayed. So we just have to wait and see how this all works out.

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And speaking of health insurance for immigrants, this issue has long been a very tricky concern for both the documented and undocumented. If you come here legally, you would have to go through the bureaucratic hurdles such as waiting for your social security number before you can be eligible to be listed as a principal or dependent of health insurance. Then once you are listed, there will be a grace period that is oftentimes implemented by health insurance companies before you get covered. In the interim, you have to pay out of your own pocket if you get hospitalized or go to a doctor’s clinic.

For the undocumented, most do not go to the emergency room for fear of being reported to the immigration authorities. And if they do, without any insurance, they would have to pay for their medical expenses.

Needless to say, medical expenses in the US are so expensive that even those with medical coverage are sometimes pushed to bankruptcy.

Next week we will have a very special topic for this column. Atangi!