On Thursday, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach took legal action on behalf of 15 states, including Iowa, to prevent President Joe Biden from granting health care access to DACA recipients through their eligibility to participate in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.
Attorneys general from 14 states, including Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia, joined Kobach, a Republican known for his focus on legal issues related to undocumented migrants, in the federal lawsuit.
Kobach has taken issue with a federal rule implemented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that would allow individuals who came to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, to qualify for health plans subsidized by taxpayers under the Affordable Care Act. This move by the Biden administration would include DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, as part of the health insurance marketplace starting November 1st.
In an effort to challenge the HHS rule, a lawsuit was filed in federal court calling for a postponement of its effective date until the case is resolved. The lawsuit also aimed to have the rule vacated on the grounds that it is not only contrary to law but also unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious.
Kobach strongly believes that undocumented residents should not be granted unrestricted access to enter our country. He finds it unacceptable for them to receive benefits paid by taxpayers upon their arrival. Additionally, he also believes that the Biden-Harris administration should not be allowed to violate federal law without any consequences. To prevent the implementation of this unlawful regulation, he is spearheading a lawsuit across multiple states.
In a complaint filed in North Dakota’s U.S. District Court, Kobach accused President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ administration of planning to violate a federal law that prohibits the flow of government benefits to non-citizens or those in the country unlawfully.
According to Kobach’s filing, in 1996 Congress restricted eligibility for federal public benefits to certain “qualified aliens” and DACA recipients were not included in this definition. Furthermore, he stated that Congress limited eligibility to participate in the ACA’s qualified health plans to “citizens or nationals” of the United States or “aliens lawfully present in the United States.”
Kobach’s petition states that being present unlawfully in the United States is a requirement for eligibility in DACA.
According to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, the publication of the final DACA rule in May could result in as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, who were previously uninsured, enrolling in health coverage through the marketplaces.
Becerra expressed HHS’s dedication to ensuring that health coverage is made available to DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, who have worked tirelessly to achieve the American dream. He emphasized that these individuals are not just acquaintances but are our neighbors, friends, and fellow Americans, who hold various roles in society, such as students, teachers, social workers, doctors, and nurses.
According to Kobach, the HHS rule has the potential to extend health insurance coverage to almost 200,000 DACA recipients through the marketplace. He further specified that this group includes 4,350 individuals in Kansas and 2,550 in Missouri. The numbers for other states involved in the lawsuit varied, with Virginia having the highest at 7,810, followed by Indiana with 7,450, Tennessee with 6,360, and South Carolina with 4,840. On the lower end, New Hampshire had 220 DACA recipients, while North Dakota had 130 and Montana had 80.
Alabama’s Attorney General, Steve Marshall, has expressed concern over the extension of health insurance to 3,460 DACA recipients in Alabama through the ACA. In his opinion, this move is an attack on the American worker.
Marshall criticized the administration for imposing the burden of paying for someone else’s college education and medical procedures that contradict their beliefs. He further added that the government is now trying to enforce the responsibility of paying for healthcare of individuals who do not even belong in the country.
According to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the lawsuit was a crucial step in stopping the Biden administration’s unconstitutional efforts to expand the scope of Obamacare.
Wilson expressed sympathy for individuals who were brought to the United States without their consent, but he also criticized the Biden administration for overstepping its authority. “This is just another instance of the administration attempting to do something that it doesn’t have the power to do,” he remarked.
