TUCSON — New federal restrictions that took effect Oct. 1 have ended Medicaid coverage for certain legal immigrants, including refugees and human trafficking victims, according to The Associated Press.
The change is part of Medicaid revisions in President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax and policy law. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2025 that the law’s Medicaid changes would leave 7.5 million fewer people insured. Green-card holders were not affected.
In Tucson, María Chacon has cared for her son Jesus for nearly five years since a car crash at 17 left him unable to breathe on his own. The family entered the U.S. on a T visa for trafficking victims in 2018.
Chacon said Medicaid covered nearly $25,000 a month of his care. ‘We’re wondering what we’re going to do?’ she said.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said immigrants ‘must be able to support themselves without taking from overburdened benefits programs.’ Ben D’Avanzo of the National Immigration Law Center called the change a message that immigrants are ‘not welcome here.’
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Tichnor Brothers, Publisher / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
