Hospital groups urge appeals court to affirm pause on public charge rule

The AHA and five other national hospital groups today filed a friend-of-the court brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to affirm a district court decision blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s public charge rule from taking effect while legal challenges to the rule proceed. The rule would limit the ability of legal immigrants to adjust or extend their immigration status or gain full citizenship based on their receipt of public benefits. 
 
“In sum, the Public Charge Rule contradicts Congress’s intent to reduce the number of uninsured residents and even undermines the very self-sufficiency goals it sets out to achieve,” the brief states. 
 
When immigrants perceive enrollment in public programs to place their status at risk, they are less likely to enroll their children in those programs, even if their children are U.S. citizens not subject to a public-charge determination, the brief notes. It adds that U.S. citizens, including 6.7 million citizen children, are projected to be “hardest hit” by the rule.
 
“These are not abstract numbers, but real people who will be forced to forego public benefits to which they are legally entitled. And they will endure worse health outcomes, loss of prescription medication, increased rates of poverty and housing instability, and impaired development of their children. Although the Public Charge Rule will have the greatest impact on immigrant communities, the hospitals that serve them will also be affected. Coverage losses will lead to sicker immigrant populations and increased emergency-room visits, resulting in more unnecessary uncompensated care for hospitals and limiting hospital resources for expanding access to health care and other community services. Congress could not have intended these results.”
 
The rule is currently on hold based on a nationwide injunction issued by a district judge in New York that the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals recently declined to stay. The administration is asking the Supreme Court to lift the hold while the cases proceed through the courts.