No child residing in Connecticut should be without basic health care coverage, regardless of their immigration status. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Connecticut was the first state to offer HUSKY Health, our Medicaid program, to qualified low-income adults. Since the ACA took effect in 2010, there has been substantial research illustrating the positive impact Medicaid access has on both individual health and the economy overall. The expansion is associated with factors such as financial security, employment gains, financial stability for medical providers and reductions in uncompensated care costs for hospitals and clinics.

At least initially, however, our state’s eligibility rules excluded all undocumented children, including those with DACA status. Why? In the aggregate, the state is responsible for about 35% to 40% of all Medicaid costs after federal reimbursements. That said, because of federal exclusions, any Medicaid plan offered to individuals without immigration status would be 100% state funded (with a narrow exception for emergency Medicaid). Likely because of these costs to the state, Connecticut’s HUSKY Medicaid program initially excluded from coverage all qualified individuals who did not have immigration status.