PRESS RELEASE
AAPCHO Applauds the Reintroduction of the HEAL for Immigrant Families Act
July 27, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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WASHINGTON—The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) today released the following statement on the reintroduction of the Health Equity and Access Under the Law (HEAL) for Immigrant Families Act of 2023. The legislation would improve comprehensive health care access and coverage for immigrants, including for Asian Americans (AAs) and Pacific Islanders (PIs) served at community health centers.
Adam P. Carbullido, AAPCHO’s director of policy and advocacy, said:
“Expanding health care coverage and access is essential to ensuring that all immigrant communities, including AA and PI families. The HEAL for Immigrant Families Act of 2023 prioritizes health, immigrants rights, and reproductive justice, ensuring that immigrants and their families can live healthy, productive lives.
“The HEAL Act would remove the five-year bar that immigrants must wait out before becoming eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and improves access for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. This legislation ensures that everyone, regardless of immigration status, gets the health care they deserve and need. It also offers exciting new options to cover health care and health services for undocumented immigrants, bringing us closer to universal health care access.
“AAPCHO applauds Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), Congresswoman Nanette Barragan (CA-44), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) for their continued leadership to improve access for immigrants and their families. AAPCHO with its members and partners encourage Congress to enact the HEAL Act into law.”
For more information on the HEAL Act, visit AAPCHO’s partner organization, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum website at: www.napawf.org/heal.
About AAPCHO
AAPCHO is a national association of community health organizations dedicated to promoting advocacy, collaboration and leadership that improves the health status and access of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States, the U.S. territories, and Freely Associated States. For more information on AAPCHO, please visit www.aapcho.org.
Contact
Kristine Cecile Alarcon, MPH, (510) 671-5054, kalarcon@aapcho.org