President Trump’s rhetoric is having a “chilling effect” on immigrant families and could be one of the contributing factors behind a recent spike in the number of uninsured kids in the U.S., according to children’s advocate MaryLee Allen.
“I think another thing that is a particular concern is the negative view toward immigrant families that we’re hearing from the [Trump] administration and from others in the country and that has a very chilling effect on families,” Allen, who is director of the Children’s Defense Fund, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball during an interview that aired on Thursday.
For the first time in a decade, the number of children in the U.S. living without health insurance is on the rise, according to a report last month by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.
The report found that the number of kids without insurance increased from 3.6 to 3.9 million in 2017. The uninsured rate for all Americans stayed at 8.8 percent.
Allen said her organization has done a lot of work in school districts across the country, including Texas, and one of the things the group has found is that immigrant parents, especially ones who are residing illegally in the United States, were hesitant to enroll their children in health care because of Trump’s escalating rhetoric toward immigrants.
Texas now has the nation’s highest rate of uninsured children. The Georgetown study found that more than 20 percent of all uninsured kids in the country live in the Lone Star State.
Allen said that some of the president’s proposed policies, such as the “public charge” rule, are also having a negative impact on immigrant families.
Trump in October proposed reinstating the public charge rule, which would make it harder for legal immigrants to get green cards if they have received certain kinds of public assistance, such as Medicaid or food stamps.
“We don’t have time to get into ‘public charge’ as it’s called in any detail but it adds more negativity in terms of parents not being willing to go forward and get coverage for their children for fear that it might later impact their ability to get a green card, Medicaid, food stamps,” Allen said.
But she said she is hopeful that advocates will be able to reverse the uninsured rate among children. She noted that Medicaid expansion at the state level will bring greater access to health care for low-income families.
“We’ve got to ensure first that we don’t let further cuts and further attacks on Medicaid and CHIP [Children’s Health Insurance Program] keep children and families from going forward,” she said. “I think that’s a big step.”
—Tess Bonn
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