ended on Oct. 1<\/a>, due to federal rule changes enacted in the \u201cone big beautiful bill.\u201d <\/p>\n\u201cWe are in a stressful situation,\u201d her daughter said. \u201cWe are thinking all day long, day and night, to find out the solution.\u201d <\/p>\n
So far, she doesn\u2019t have one. Advocates for the family \u2014 and for immigrants in similar situations \u2014 say it\u2019s creating a massive strain for them, and for the agencies and counties that are now scrambling to cover their care.<\/p>\n
What rules changed?<\/p>\n
According to Minnesota\u2019s Department of Human Services, more than 5,000 immigrants in the state lost Medicaid coverage due to the federal rule change this week. <\/p>\n
Under the old rules, immigrants in the United States legally \u2014 including refugees and asylees \u2014 were eligible for Medicaid before they got their green card. The new rule eliminates eligibility for anyone over the age of 21 and not pregnant who doesn\u2019t yet have a green card.<\/p>\n
The impacted group also includes Afghan and Ukrainian humanitarian parolees, trafficking victims, noncitizens protected under the Violence Against Women Act, and qualified noncitizen veterans living in Minnesota. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump Administration has a public mandate, a statutory obligation, and a moral duty to safeguard our federal healthcare programs,\u201d said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in a statement announcing guidance on Medicaid changes.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson at DHS said that most of the individuals impacted \u2014 about 75 percent \u2014 will qualify for the state\u2019s insurance program, Minnesota Care.<\/p>\n
But Minnesota Care doesn\u2019t cover some of the services that Medicaid waivers do. Those allow people to get care and support in their homes and communities \u2014 like the care home service that the Afghan woman receives. <\/p>\n
DHS has identified more than 200 people receiving waiver services who are losing their coverage. <\/p>\n
A family \u2018trapped\u2019<\/p>\n
The daughter found out about the rule change via a letter in the mail from DHS, notifying her that her mother would no longer be eligible for Medicaid under the new rules. She saw it less than two weeks ago. The family appealed the end of care, but has not heard an answer. <\/p>\n
They believe the mother will also lose access to her wheelchair, which was paid for through Medicaid.<\/p>\n
The daughter says she can\u2019t take her mother in; she lives in an apartment with no elevator, and has to leave home to go to work. <\/p>\n
She asked for help from Michael Van Keulen. He\u2019s the executive director of Open Path Resources, a Twin Cities organization helping immigrant communities navigate life in Minnesota. <\/p>\n
Van Keulen said the family has only found two possibilities for the mother, should she have to leave the care home: a homeless shelter, or a stay at Hennepin County Medical Center. <\/p>\n
A homeless shelter, he said, is off the table. They\u2019re not equipped to accommodate the mother\u2019s need for around-the-clock care.<\/p>\n
And the county hospital isn\u2019t an ideal option, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’ll have to take up a bed with no solution in sight, no change in sight, and dramatically more expensive model of care,\u201d Van Keulen said. <\/p>\n
For now, the woman is still in the care home. The home\u2019s director told MPR News she worked out a plan to keep her there for a few extra days, with the home taking on the cost of her care. But after that, the small, seven-bed home can\u2019t afford to cover the bill for her care.<\/p>\n
The daughter said the problem would also be solved if they were able to get their green cards, which she says her family applied for two years ago. But their applications are still pending. <\/p>\n
According to the Department of Homeland Security, current processing times for green card applications are about three years. Immigration experts in the Twin Cities say that, a few years ago, it took just nine months. <\/p>\n
Van Keulen said that leaves the family squeezed from two sides, with no word on their green cards and no word on how to access the healthcare they need without them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people intentionally trapped into a status that’s being attacked,\u201d Van Keulen said. <\/p>\n
Looking for solutions <\/p>\n
Immigrant assistance organizations are helping eligible clients transfer over to Minnesota Care. But the process can be tricky to navigate.<\/p>\n
Michelle Eberhard, director of refugee services at the International Institute of Minnesota, said every individual is in a different situation. Some people received letters informing them that they\u2019d been automatically switched to Minnesota Care; others received another letter from DHS with forms and instructions to apply for Minnesota Care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not totally clear to me kind of how someone ends up in one process versus the other,\u201d Eberhard said. <\/p>\n
The result is a logistical maze.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern I have is that there are people who may not really understand what’s happened, and if there was an action that was needed prior to Oct. 1, that could be problematic because they would go into the month potentially not covered,\u201d Eberhard said. <\/p>\n
Van Keulen said the family he works with has not found a way to get the woman\u2019s current needs covered under Minnesota Care. He\u2019s gone to officials in Hennepin County and state legislators to ask for help. <\/p>\n
Hennepin County Commissioner Heather Edelson said the county is scrambling, too. She\u2019s been on the phone with constituents and case managers, trying to figure out what is and isn\u2019t covered in different people\u2019s unique cases. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to figure out how to get people the care they need, but the county also can’t take on costs that can’t be covered for every single person that is not able to get Minnesota Care,\u201d Edelson said. <\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s part of a broader concern she has about the federal government cutting benefits and leaving counties to fill the gaps. In this instance, she said, the county is now on the hook for finding care for people, or paying their hospital bills if they can\u2019t stay in their current care situations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re trying to figure out with all of the changing rules how we can actually be helpful, and there’s a lack of resources with an abundance of people to help,\u201d Edelson said. <\/p>\n
The family at the center of this situation is hoping they find an answer before they need to move the mother out of her home \u2014 and likely into Hennepin County Medical Center. <\/p>\n
The daughter said she\u2019s grateful for all the help she\u2019s getting, and for the benefits the government has provided her mother before. But after surviving a bombing and going through the process to get asylum and apply for green cards, she said, she feels like the government is breaking a promise to her and her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou leaving us here in this situation is injustice,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were not expecting this situation. We came here as legal immigrants \u2026 we followed rules and policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minnesota DHS Refugee and Immigrant Helpline remains available for free at 1-800-814-4806, and individuals can call to connect with resources for healthcare and insurance.<\/p>\n
MPR News health reporter Erica Zurek contributed to this story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sunny room at a Twin Cities-area assisted living home, a young woman leans down to squeeze…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-869975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}