Health
Report Links Health Care Programs for Undocumented Immigrants to Reduced Hospital Financial Burdens
Advocates are trying to save an Illinois program that provides health insurance to immigrants without legal status before the budget season wraps up in Springfield.
More than 32,000 undocumented people aged 42 to 64 currently get coverage from the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA) program. It was launched in 2021 as a companion to the Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors (HBIS) program, which provides coverage for undocumented immigrants aged 65 and older. Both of these programs provide coverage for people who aren’t eligible for Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people funded by state and federal dollars.
But with the state facing a budget deficit and uncertainty with federal funding, Gov. JB Pritzker cut the program from his proposed spending plan.
A new report from the University of Chicago links the program to reduced financial burdens on hospitals. It found that programs like HBIA and HBIS were linked to a 15% reduction in hospital debt in Illinois.
Aresha Martinez-Cardoso, a University of Chicago professor involved in the research, said hospitals face many financial pressures and costs they must absorb when a patient is unable to pay for care. She said these findings are important because they underscore how taxpayers will end up paying the costs of delayed care regardless — either through the state or through hospital’s financial burdens.
“What we think happened is that before the policy, individuals who were uninsured were often delaying care for everyday conditions,” Martinez-Cardoso said. “Maybe they weren’t getting their annual checkups or if they had chronic conditions they weren’t routinely seen. Often what happens when people delay care is that when they finally do need to get to a doctor they are either incurring medical procedures or medical care that is much more expensive than some of the preventative care that is cheaper to provide upfront. Or they are going to more expensive kind of care, like the emergency room, to get care when they could have been seen for many of these conditions by a primary care physician.”
The research comes as lawmakers move forward with plans to cut the program. An audit from February showed the services were much more expensive than originally planned.
“The initial cost estimates for HBIA (42-54) for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 totaled $68 million, while the actual total cost was $262.2 million or 286 percent higher,” the audit said.
But advocates and some lawmakers are still pushing for additional funding sources to keep these programs going. They say their efforts aren’t finished even as the legislative session winds down.
State Sen. Graciela Guzmán (D-Chicago), one of the program’s advocates, said in a statement, “We are actively working with the Governor’s office, Illinois Healthcare and Family Services, and the General Assembly to ensure healthcare remains in the hands of our community. This budget process is not over, and we will not stop fighting. Illinois must not walk away from its proud legacy of healthcare justice.”
