By Megan Burks
Including DACA Recipients in Health Care Reform
Immigrant rights groups, health advocates and others are pushing for the Affordable Care Act to benefit undocumented immigrants who receive temporary legal status under President Obama’s deferred action policy.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals gives some young undocumented immigrants the ability to reside legally in the United States and work here for two years at a time. However, Obama’s health care law excludes those immigrants from using public health plans or buying private insurance through new state-run exchanges.
“In essence, the Obama administration has provided immigrant youth with the tools they need to work, but denied them the right to take care of themselves,” Jenny Rejeske, health policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center, writes on Immigration Impact.
According to Rejeske, hundred of groups have sent letters to the president and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pressure the federal government to consider changing the law or open up access to health care for immigrants through immigration reform.
Follow the Immigration Policy Center @ImmPolicyCenter.
School Nurses Spread Thin This Year
KPBS education reporter Kyla Calvert reports the San Diego Unified School District will go back to the old way of assigning school nurses next year after several schools opted not to have a health professional on site this year.
The district gave principals the option to decide how they would pay for health services on campus this year. Many chose to pay for a less expensive health technician, who can treat bumps and bruises but can’t administer medicine without a nurse’s direction. Thirty-four schools chose not to have a nurse or technician, relying instead on a roving nurse who shuttles to and from multiple schools, sometimes as many as 16.
The system has nurses stretched thin. Our partner, The AjA Project, reports students at Crawford High School have even noticed the shortage.
Earlier this month, the school board voted to go back to centrally assigning nurses, Calvert reports.
Follow KPBS education reporter Kyla Calvert @kylacalvert
Free Health Care Enrollment and Resource Fair This Weekend
Mid-City CAN and several other community partners are hosting a health-themed resource fair noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Colina Del Sol Park. Service providers will help attendees sign up for health coverage and give free health screenings and flu shots. The event will also feature a discussion about a City Heights effort to get more face-to-face translation in hospitals and clinics. Residents, who come from all over the world and speak more than 30 different languages, report relying on translation by family members or over the phone can lead to misunderstandings.
See the flyer here (en Español)
Follow Mid-City CAN @midcitycan.
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