Yolibeth’s 4-year-old daughter jumped onto a soft leather loveseat in their New Orleans home, eagerly handing a hairbrush to Miriam Romero, a health coordinator working with the family. Romero gently lifted the little girl onto her lap and began to comb her hair, while Yolibeth, a 38-year-old single mother who emigrated from Honduras 15 years ago, watched with a smile. As part of a blended family, her daughter is the youngest of five children. While Yolibeth and her two older children lack legal immigration status, her three U.S.-born children, aged 4, 9, and 13, are citizens.
All of Yolibeth’s children born in the U.S. were automatically enrolled in Medicaid, allowing her access to affordable healthcare for routine checkups from birth. Unfortunately, her two older children, aged 15 and 17, have never received health insurance, which compels them to rely on low-cost local clinics when they have the means to do so.
However, Yolibeth is increasingly concerned about her children’s access to healthcare. She has been anxiously awaiting news on the renewal of her children’s Medicaid applications for months. Her worries have intensified following Louisiana’s recent legislation targeting non-citizen Medicaid recipients, leading her to fear that her application could be denied. Her main concern is for her 4-year-old’s access to essential health services and childhood vaccines.
“My child is not receiving the healthcare necessary for growth and development because I am unable to access services,” Yolibeth expressed in Spanish as her daughter giggled nearby.
Due to potential repercussions related to her immigration status, Verite News and KFF Health News have opted not to disclose Yolibeth’s full name.
Romero, affiliated with Familias Unidas en Acción, a local nonprofit advocating for immigrants, noted an alarming trend: she had received recent calls from eight immigrant families whose applications for Medicaid for their U.S.-born children had been rejected.
“Every day, we see children losing Medicaid benefits due to the new law in Louisiana,” Romero remarked in Spanish. “As time progresses, more children will inevitably be impacted.” She fears that all children in mixed-status families could face denial of Medicaid benefits by year’s end.
Challenges in Accessing Healthcare
A nationwide survey conducted by KFF and The New York Times revealed that many immigrant families have either missed or postponed medical care in the past year. Cited reasons include high costs, difficulties in finding services, and apprehensions about immigration status. Notably, immigrants without legal status are particularly affected, with many opting not to apply for programs like Medicaid for fear of attracting unwanted attention.
In Louisiana, where nearly a third of the population is enrolled in Medicaid, a new law exacerbates these issues. The legislation mandates that the Louisiana Department of Health confirm the citizenship status of Medicaid applicants, terminating coverage for those deemed to have “insufficient” proof and reporting these individuals to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since this law’s passage, comparable measures have emerged in states including North Carolina, Wyoming, Indiana, and Tennessee, with several others contemplating similar legislation.
Despite requests for comments on the law’s implications, Republican state Rep. Chance Keith Henry, the bill’s sponsor, did not respond. He asserted in a 2025 House debate that he did not foresee a chilling effect on immigrants seeking healthcare, emphasizing that U.S.-born children of undocumented parents could still receive Medicaid.
This law aims to protect American citizens and taxpayers, yet advocates for immigrant rights contend that it has inadvertently discouraged applications and severed access to essential medical care. Concerns over immigration enforcement in states like Louisiana and Minnesota, compounded by federal policy changes, have only heightened fears among immigrant communities.
While advocates cannot definitively affirm whether the new law has led to incident reports of detention or deportation, Aaron Moseley-Saldivar, a legal and public policy advisor for the Louisiana Refugee and Immigration Agency, indicated that such policies may deter immigrant families from applying for healthcare programs, even those they qualify for.
“Individuals refrain from seeking the benefits they are eligible for because they feel threatened by such laws, fearing entanglement in the system,” Moseley-Saldivar noted. “Many families in Louisiana have become homebound out of fear of these policies.”
Healthcare Access as a Double-Edged Sword
Last year, over 600 individuals lined up outside a health fair organized by the Louisiana Refugee and Immigrant Organization, waiting from 4 a.m. for free health screenings. The event, scheduled to commence at 9 a.m., saw many attendees compelled to endure a two-hour wait in chilly conditions. “We were inundated,” recalled Sharon Nee, the organization’s director of communications.
Romero highlighted that some families in the New Orleans area are facing waits of up to six months to obtain vaccinations for their children at healthcare events. However, these events have become increasingly rare, and access to preventive care, including essential screenings, is dwindling. “The current situation is a double-edged sword; the fear of seeking care results in emergencies that are much harder to address,” she said, adding that neglecting preventive care can escalate into life-threatening situations.
In light of these challenges, both Njie and Romero are striving to connect families with sympathetic healthcare providers who understand their circumstances and may offer discounted care. Yet, these individual efforts do not resolve underlying systemic issues stemming from restrictive state laws and restrictive immigration policies affecting healthcare access and quality.
For Yolibeth, the journey for healthcare has been fraught with hurdles; she secured free insurance plans for her three children through the Louisiana Affordable Care Act Marketplace while awaiting Medicaid updates. However, the search for a doctor willing to accept her insurance has left her feeling effectively uninsured. When her 13-year-old son fell ill, she faced a choice between forgoing costs for a pediatric appointment or sending him to school without a doctor’s note, risking exposure for other children.
Romero expressed concern that frequent school absences due to illness could lead to criminal cases and potentially result in family separation. “It’s unimaginable,” she stated, reflecting on the difficulties that families face in accessing crucial healthcare services that once seemed guaranteed.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom dedicated to in-depth reporting on health issues, operating as part of KFF’s core initiatives to provide independent health policy research and journalism.
