Reproductive Health: What you need to know about the current state of DACA
By Bentley Choi
Last updated: Feb 28, 2022
In the United States, healthcare is often portrayed as a luxury of the upper-middle class. Among the healthcare sector, pregnancy and gynaecologist visits are daydreams for some. A continuous antenatal visit without insurance takes “too much” out-of-pocket cost, and a trip to the ER to give birth might cost more than one’s monthly income. While various non-profit organisations demanded multiple administrations to implement Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for reproductive healthcare services, the progress for social change is very slow. The health disparity is more overt among marginalised populations, and this article focuses on reproductive health among recipients of Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Before exploring available reproductive healthcare options for DACA recipients, it is important to know the differences between DACA and Dreamers in the United States. DACA is an American immigration policy that issues individuals with ‘unlawful presence in the U.S. territory after being brought to the country as children’ a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and becomes eligible for an employment authorisation document (EAD or work permit). On the Other hand, Dreamers are granted temporary conditional residency with the right to work under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act). If Dreamers satisfy further qualifications, they can obtain permanent residency and citizenship. The biggest difference between DACA recipients and Dreamers is the presence of pathways to obtain U.S. citizenship, which acts as the biggest factor to discriminate against their healthcare coverage. Currently, there are almost 600,000 active DACA recipients. However, none of our public school education taught us healthcare options for this population.
DACA recipients can receive emergency Medicaid in every state, which covers emergency care and obstetric admissions to ER. An emergency Medicaid is a different type of Medicaid with traditionally known coverage, allowing low-income households to receive quality care without financial burden. While DACA recipients are unable to receive comprehensive health coverage under the Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), all state governments expanded the eligibility of emergency Medicaid to undocumented aliens. Once the patient is admitted to the hospital with the emergency Medicaid for the birth, the child is automatically eligible for Medicaid/Kids Connection for a year. However, many reproductive health activists claim that the coverage of emergency Medicaid is very limited since it does not cover services such as prenatal care, which can detect birth defects and high-risk birth at the early stage of pregnancy among vulnerable mothers.
Then, how can we make reproductive healthcare more accessible to DACA recipients? As I briefly mentioned above, prenatal care plays a vital role in examining the risk of pregnancy and can provide appropriate care services to mothers who need assistance for safe delivery. Also, we often overlook the importance of early breast cancer and cervical cancer screening, family planning services, HIV/AIDS treatment, and it is necessary to everyone regardless of their national origin, alienage, or ethnicity. Thus, the U.S. government needs to expand both federal and state coverage to offer these services to undocumented aliens to achieve bodily autonomy and exercise fundamental human rights – the right to health.