{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/senators-booker-durbin-hirono-and-representatives-lee-castro-jayapal-and-urge-biden-administration-to-expand-health-coverage-to-daca-recipients", "Senators Booker, Durbin, Hirono and Representatives Lee, Castro, Jayapal and Urge Biden Administration to Expand Health Coverage to DACA Recipients", "2023-11-15", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "Washington, DC \u2013 Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) joined with Representatives Barbara Lee (CA-12), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) to call on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to finalize their proposed rule to expand health coverage for those participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, crime victims, and immigrant children.\n\nIn April 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a regulation to make DACA recipients eligible for coverage under Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This rule also enhances coverage for other groups, including those approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status and children applying for humanitarian relief. If this rule is not soon finalized, individuals in need may not be able to fully benefit from the 2024 Affordable Care Act open enrollment period, which began on November 1, 2023.\n\n\u201cDACA recipients are also disproportionately uninsured and tend to experience higher barriers to health care \u2013 these trends all contribute to racial health disparities in the U.S. Youth approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status often have to wait years before receiving a status adjustment. Due to confusion around current rule implementation, access to health coverage has been delayed for many,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\nThe lawmakers requested that the Biden Administration address the following questions:\n\nWhat is preventing HHS from finalizing the rule, and how can congressional allies help address any barriers?\n\nWhen the rule is finalized, what resources will your administration devote to ensuring newly eligible people are aware of their health coverage options? The preamble of the proposed rule stated, \u201cimplementation of these changes would be most effective during a period when there are many outreach and enrollment activities occurring.\u201d The time to finalize this policy and expand health coverage is now.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/senators-booker-durbin-hirono-and-representatives-lee-castro-jayapal-and-urge-biden-administration-to-expand-health-coverage-to-daca-recipients"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9224060233682394, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}