Figuring out how to afford health care is complicated no matter who you are. But it’s even more challenging if you are an immigrant. Many insurance programs are restricted by immigration status, materials are often not available in every language, and it can be intimidating for someone who is unsure about their immigration status to sign up for a government program.
But there are basic health care rights that all immigrants in New York State have, like the right to translation, or health coverage for children and pregnant women. And there are a number of options to help low-income immigrants pay for health insurance.
To help the thousands of immigrants in New York State make their way through this complex process, CUP worked with the New York Immigration Coalition and designers Pratima Mani and Partner & Partners to create Welcome To Health Care! This issue of Making Policy Public is in Both English and Spanish, and features a visual breakdown of programs that help immigrants keep their health care costs affordable, and lays out their health care rights.
Welcome To Health Care! launched at a public distribution event with NYIC and The Centro Altagracia de Fe y Justicia. It is currently being distributed by community groups working on health care issues across New York State. The English/Spanish version of the project was updated in 2019.
A Traditional Chinese version of the guide was also launched in 2019. You can get your Traditional Chinese version here.
Recently, the government has announced changes to the rules it uses to determine if someone is a “public charge.” This complicated set of rules can limit the healthcare options of some immigrants and potentially impact their immigration status. To help them make a decision about which government programs are safe to use, CUP worked with NYIC to develop a one-pager about who is affected by “public charge” rules and translated it into nine languages: English/Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, French, Korean, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Hindi, and Portuguese. To download copies, click here.