Immigrant children are an important and growing segment of the U.S. population. However, their health and well-being is continuously compromised because they are shut out of programs that would help them gain meaningful access to health care. The “Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act” (ICHIA) addresses this problem by giving states the option to provide federally funded Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to low-income legal immigrant children and pregnant women.

Since 1996 all legal immigrants – including children – have faced legal barriers that restrict them from accessing health care. They are barred from Medicaid, SCHIP, and other safety-net services for the first five years that they live in the U.S. After the five years, legal immigrants face additional barriers before becoming eligible for these programs, regardless of their medical need. These barriers cause undue harm to children who are restricted from health care services solely because they are legal immigrants.

NCLR is extremely supportive of “ICHIA.” We encourage you to learn more about “ICHIA” and immigrant children’s access to health care by using the resources on this page. In addition, you can help to advance “ICHIA” by taking action and using the alerts to the side.

The Latest News on "ICHIA"