The Affordable Care Act and Children of Immigrants: Have anything changed?

Despite immigrant parents being able to apply for their eligible kids without having to offer information about their own immigration status under the Affordable Care Act, the family still needs to provide either their SSN, or proof that the minor is eligible, and proof of income. This indirect limitation impacts the likelihood that their children, even if eligible, would acquire healthcare coverage. Using data from the Integrated Health Service Interview Series 2000-2016 and logistic methods, this paper explores the hypothesis that children of immigrants’ healthcare coverage and their healthcare usage have been affected differently from the implementation of the ACA and depending on their parental nativity. Children of immigrants, regardless of child’s immigration status, have lower health insurance rate and lower levels of health utilization compared to their US-born counterparts, even after the implementation of the ACA. Yet, after the ACA, there is evidence that citizen children of immigrants are experiencing a significant increase in health coverage rate and positive changes on health care usage more relate to preventive care such as regular well-being doctor visits. There are not significant improvements on non-citizen children indicators.