There are more than 800,000 DACA recipients in the United States. DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was created by executive order during the Obama Administration and allows certain undocumented individuals who came to the United States as children to temporarily stay in the country, obtain work permits, and be protected from deportation.
However, according to the Healthcare.gov immigration status page, “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is not an eligible immigration status for applying for health insurance.” That’s because, as explained by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, “DACA recipients were explicitly made ineligible for ACA marketplaces” by the Obama Administration, though “DACA recipients, and anyone regardless of immigration status, can purchase unsubsidized coverage directly from an insurer.”
But there is good news for Dreamers: a recently proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services, if finalized, would allow DACA recipients not only to purchase coverage through the federal marketplace but would also allow them to apply for premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions. In an April 24, 2023 press release, HHS says that this rule “could lead to 129,000 previously uninsured DACA recipients receiving health care coverage.”
As the Kaiser Family Foundation explains, “Premium tax credits are available to U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants who purchase coverage in the Marketplace and who have income at least as high as 100% of the federal poverty level.” DACA recipients, though, do not meet this requirement since they are not considered “lawfully present.” The proposed rule would change that by amending “the definition of ‘lawfully present’ to include DACA recipients for the purposes of Medicaid and CHIP” and the advance premium tax credits, according to HHS.
The Biden Administration announced the “plan to expand health coverage for DACA recipients” in an April 13, 2023 Fact Sheet, noting that HHS would soon be “amending the definition of ‘lawful presence,’ for purposes of Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage, to include DACA recipients.”
The proposed rule has not yet been finalized, but it is possible that it will be in time for the 2024 open enrollment period, which begins November 1 and ends January 15.