This Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report finds that current health care reform proposals do little to help immigrants, including legal permanent residents.  MPI finds that 4.2 million of the 12 million legal immigrants in the U.S. are currently uninsured and notes that many are temporarily barred from state Medicaid programs because of a 1996 law requiring that legal aliens wait five years from the date they obtain their green card before becoming eligible for Medicaid.  The report finds that maintaining that restriction and applying it to the government health insurance subsidies for individuals earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) will limit health insurance access for over 1 million legal immigrants.  In addition, the report examines the cost implications of limiting health insurance access for both legal and illegal immigrants under various health reform proposals. 

Full Report: Immigrants and Health Care Reform: What's Really At Stake? (PDF | 524.83 KB)

Migration Policy Institute. (2009). Immigrants and health care reform: what's really at stake? Capps, R., Rosenblum, M.R., and Fix, M.