THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

                VICE PRESIDENT GORE TAKES NEW ACTION TO
        ASSURE FAMILIES ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AND OTHER BENEFITS

       New Regulation Clarifies That Receiving Medicaid, CHIP, or
            Other Benefits Will Not Affect Immigration Status

McAllen, TX -- Vice President Gore announced today a new Department of Justice regulation to assure families that enrolling in Medicaid or the new Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and receiving other critical benefits, such as school lunch and child care services, will not affect their immigration status.

The new policy, effective immediately, clarifies a widespread misconception that has deterred eligible populations from enrolling in these programs and undermined the nation's public health. In addition, the Vice President directed Federal agencies to send guidance to their field offices, program grantees and to work with community organizations to educate Americans about this new policy.

"This new regulation will improve the health of our families by addressing widespread confusion that prevents legal immigrants from signing up for health insurance, school lunch, child care and other essential programs," said Vice President Gore.

                 WIDESPREAD CONFUSION ABOUT CURRENT POLICY
                  DETERS LEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM ACCESSING
                  CRITICAL BENEFITS THEY ARE ELIGIBLE FOR

     Recent immigration and welfare reform laws have generated 

widespread public confusion about whether legal immigrants receiving certain publicly funded benefits can be deemed to be a "public charge," meaning they may be denied the ability to become a legal permanent resident and subject to deportation. This confusion and fear has deterred legal immigrant families from enrolling their children in Medicaid and CHIP, and prevented legal immigrants from receiving immunization and treatment for communicable diseases, which places the entire national public health at risk. It also reduces payment sources for hospitals and other health care providers serving this population, thus increasing their uncompensated care burden. A 1998 Urban Institute study found that in Los Angeles County the rate of legal immigrants applying for health insurance dropped by 21 percent from January 1996 to January 1998, suggesting that legal immigrants do not take full advantage of their eligibility for currently available programs.

NEW STEPS ENSURE THAT LEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO CRITICAL HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SERVICES WITHOUT FEAR.

These new regulations provide clear and consistent guidance that health care and other critical services cannot be used to deny individuals admission to the United States or to bar legal permanent resident status, or as a basis for deportation. Eligible legal immigrants can now receive the following benefits without fear of jeopardizing their immigration status:

     Health insurance under Medicaid and CHIP. There have been reports 
     of individuals being told that receiving Medicaid or CHIP will 
     negatively effect their immigration status leading to widespread 
     concern in the immigrant community about enrolling in Medicaid or 
     CHIP, even where the beneficiary is a child who is a United States 
     citizen. These new regulations take a significant step towards 
     eliminating that concern by clarifying that legal immigrants are 
     eligible for these programs(with the exception of 
     institutionalization for long term care) will not face adverse 
     immigration consequences.

     Access to immunization, testing, and treatment for communicable
     disease.  After an outbreak of rubella in New York in 1997, public
     health officials learned that the major reason that people had not
     been vaccinated was the fear that using health department services
     would affect their immigration status.  These new regulations take 
     new steps to protect the health of all Americans by ensuring legal
     immigrants can access - without fear - free immunizations, testing,
     and treatment for communicable diseases, such as rubella or
     tuberculosis.

     Access to essential nutrition programs.  These new regulations 
     remove the perceived barriers to receiving critical nutrition 
     benefits, including Food Stamps, the Special Supplemental 
     Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the 
     National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, and other 
     supplementary and emergency food assistance programs. Access to 
     these benefits is extremely important for legal immigrant 
     children. Recent studies by the United States Department of 
     Agriculture (USDA) and the Census Bureau indicate that Hispanic 
     families with children have among the lowest food security
     rates (70 percent), placing them at risk for malnutrition.

     Other supports for families. These regulations also make it 
     possible for eligible legal immigrants to also access important 
     social supports for working families, such as child care services, 
     housing assistance, energy assistance, emergency disaster relief, 
     foster care and adoption assistance, transportation vouchers, 
     educational assistance, and job training programs without fear of 
     adverse immigration consequences.

     The Vice President also directed all Federal agencies that oversee

these programs, including the Department of Health and Human Services, USDA, the Department of Justice, the Social Security Administration, and the State Department, to send guidance to their field offices, program grantees and to work with community organizations to educate Americans about this new policy.

           CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION'S STRONG COMMITMENT 
     TO INSURING LOW INCOME FAMILIES AND PROMOTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

     The new regulations the Vice President unveiled today are part of 

a comprehensive effort by the Clinton/Gore Administration to help families obtain health care, which includes:

     Providing health insurance to legal immigrant children, pregnant
     women, and individuals with disabilities. The Administration's 
     budget proposes to provide health coverage to low-income legal 
     immigrant children and pregnant women who entered the country 
     after August 22, 1996 and to legal immigrants who entered the 
     country after August 22, 1996 and became disabled after entering 
     the country, providing health insurance for over 100,000 legal 
     immigrants. This builds on the Administration's success in 
     restoring eligibility for Medicaid, SSI, and Food Stamps to 
     hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants including restoring 
     disability and health benefits to 380,000 legal immigrants
     in the Balanced Budget Act and providing Food Stamps for 225,000 
     legal immigrant children, senior citizens, and people with 
     disabilities in the Agricultural Research Act of 1998

     Launching the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The
     President, with bipartisan support from the Congress, created 
     CHIP, which allocates $24 billion over five years to extend 
     health care coverage to uninsured children through State-designed 
     programs. He also launched the Insure Kids Now Campaign, which 
     engages a broad-based, bipartisan, public-private coalition to 
     use a variety of means to educate and assist families in insuring 
     their children. This campaign specifically designed for minority 
     populations and encourages outreach to children in non-traditional 
     settings, such as churches and community centers, where legal 
     immigrant children are frequently found.

                                    ###