Rosa María Carranza, 67, a child development professional from Oakland, California, contributed tens of thousands of dollars into Medicare and Social Security over 24 years. However, she and an estimated 100,000 other lawfully present immigrants will soon be cut out of Medicare under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July by President Trump. The legislation barred certain categories of lawfully present immigrants—including temporary protected status holders, refugees, asylum-seekers, survivors of domestic violence, trafficking victims, and people with work visas—from Medicare, with existing beneficiaries to be disenrolled by January 4.
Carranza left El Salvador in 1991 during a brutal civil war and overstayed her visa until 2001, when she qualified for temporary protected status after two earthquakes killed more than 1,100 people and displaced 1.3 million. She worked overnight shifts babysitting newborns and substitute-teaching in San Francisco schools to pay for her children’s schooling in El Salvador and her own classes at City College of San Francisco, where she earned a degree in child development. Late last year she was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and in January she experienced dangerous spiking blood pressure requiring urgent care. She also tripped on a curb while walking and developed arthritis, costing her only $10 for the urgent care visit and $5 to see her primary care doctor.
Unprecedented Coverage Loss
Health experts say eliminating coverage for immigrants with legal status is unprecedented. Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at KFF, stated: “This is actually the first time that Congress has taken away Medicare from any group.” Altogether, 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants were projected to lose health insurance. While data on lawfully present immigrants is unavailable, immigrants without legal status paid $6.4 billion into Medicare and $25.7 billion into Social Security in 2022, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Clinicians anticipate that seniors losing coverage will delay care, leading to increases in severely ill patients in hospital emergency rooms. Theresa Cheng, an emergency physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, warned: “It’s quite easy for them to fall off the cliff.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/immigrant-seniors-medicare-california-big-beautiful-bill-eligibility-taxes/