Following a Supreme Court deadlock on immigration initiatives designed to provide deportation relief to millions, groups ranging from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the NAACP on Monday urged President Obama to restore access to affordable health insurance programs to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. DACA is an immigration initiative announced in 2012 that allows certain immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to apply for deportation relief and work authorization. The National Immigration Law Center, along with more than 360 organizations from across the country, sent the president a letter demanding that he revoke unnecessary and harmful regulations enacted by his administration in 2012. The regulations affirmatively deny DACA recipients access to affordable health insurance under Affordable Care Act programs, and also to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in states that have enacted expanded coverage options for children or pregnant women.

The Obama administration announced regulatory changes on August 28, 2012, that exclude DACA recipients from federal health insurance programs. The policies do not affect any other immigration category and do not affect people granted deferred action apart from the DACA program. If not for the 2012 regulatory changes, some DACA recipients would have gained access to more options for affordable and comprehensive health insurance. DACA recipients who are under 21 years old or pregnant, and otherwise eligible, would have been able to apply for free or low-cost health insurance through a state’s Medicaid program or CHIP in about half of the states. In the letter, the groups told President Obama that “[i]t required both dedication and political courage to create the DACA program, as it did to pursue health reform when it had eluded so many of your predecessors. In order for each of these programs to succeed, they must be brought into alignment.” Some states, such as California, continue to provide all young residents, regardless of their immigration status, access to affordable health care through state-funded Medicaid and CHIP.