HEALTH CARE REFORM: WHAT DO I TELL MY IMMIGRANT PATIENTS?

Partners community benefits has written a fact-sheet for MGH Chelsea to help staff assist immigrant patients to understand coverage options and the individual mandate requirements under Massachusetts' Health Care Reform.

One caveat:  The document says that some undocumented immigrants pay taxes with a special tax ID number and thus might be subject to a penalty under the individual mandate if they don't have insurance, but that those who don't pay taxes won't be penalized for not having health insurance. This is because tax returns are the mechanism for assessing the penalty, and that those who don't pay taxes probably aren't "known" to the system. Although we can all empathize with the irony that those who pay taxes are the ones potentially penalized, obviously we should avoid advising anyone to stop paying taxes. As well as being the law, those immigrants who hope to adjust their status will have one less barrier if they have been paying taxes.

-Fact sheet forwarded by Kim Simonian, MPH, Community Benefit Programs, Partners HealthCare, February 11, 2008.

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