Texas' 90,000 DACA recipients can now sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Scripps News/AP

Posted 6:16 PM, Nov 13, 2024


When Victoria Elizondo first went to see a doctor about her symptoms at Legacy Community Clinic, a low-cost clinic in Houston, she didn’t know what was wrong with her but she knew something wasn’t right. Her hands would shake uncontrollably, her heart would beat fast even while resting and she suffered from insomnia.

After the appointment, she was told her immune system was attacking an overactive thyroid, a disorder called Graves’ disease, and that an endocrinologist was the only doctor who could help her. But without health insurance, the cost to see one was exorbitant — as much as $800 for a visit. “I thought it was a joke,” said Elizondo, a 33-year-old restaurant owner.

Elizondo, who has been paying thousands of dollars a year for treatment, may soon find relief. She is now one of nearly 90,000 DACA recipients in Texas — and more than 500,000 across the nation — who finally get a chance at signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Through Jan. 15, DACA recipients — those who under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are temporarily protected to live and work in the U.S. after being brought to the country unauthorized as children — can enroll in the federal health insurance marketplace for the first time since launching 10 years ago.

Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/immigration/texas-90-000-daca-recipients-can-now-sign-up-for-affordable-care-act-coverage

[raccoon]

1. How did Abbott let this happen?

Seriously, I'm glad the DACAs are getting this coverage.

[hannah]

2. It's a trap

Perhaps to deport them

[Think. Again.]

3. That isn't an unrealistic theory.

[BigMin28]

4. Not

In Texas. I put nothing past the repuliscum here in Texas.

[erodriguez]

5. 90k people who are about to be arrested and deported.

[Lonestarblue]

6. Good for them, but how long will it last?

With full control if Congress, Republicans are likely to repeal the ACA as soon as Trump us sworn in.

[imavoter]

7. As a Texan, this is great, but...

Without the Medicare expansion it's still expensive.
Even though the Biden administration has made it cheaper.

I almost needed to use the market place last year
and the only things there were HMOs, and not
every system takes the plans offered.