Kelly, Colleagues Oppose Trump Administration’s Proposed Rule to Take ACA Eligibility Away from Dreamers

This week, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and 120 colleagues sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. opposing the department’s proposal to reverse the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace eligibility for Dreamers, a move that would significantly restrict their access to affordable health coverage. 

“The ACA makes all lawfully present immigrants eligible for marketplace coverage. When the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) first established the regulatory definition of lawfully present immigrants in 2010, it included all deferred action recipients, consistent with longstanding federal policies for Social Security benefits and driver’s licenses under the REAL ID Act. However, in 2012, the agency, without any statutory justification, added an exclusion for DACA recipients. We believe CMS made the wrong decision, arbitrarily excluding hundreds of thousands of immigrant youth from health coverage despite Congress’s intent in passing the ACA to widely expand access to health care,” the lawmakers wrote.  

In 2024, HHS finalized a rule correcting this error and allowing DACA recipients access to the ACA Marketplace and premium tax credits. The letter states that, “Prior to this rule, DACA recipients were nearly five times more likely to be uninsured compared to their U.S. born peers. The proposed regulation would reverse course and tear health coverage away from DACA recipients who have only had eligibility for less than a year.” 

The lawmakers highlighted that President Trump has repeatedly recognized the value of Dreamers. In December 2024, President Trump made clear that Congress must “do something about the Dreamers, because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now, they don’t even speak the language of their country.”  

“We agree with President Trump that Congress must pass the DREAM Act to create a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients. In the meantime, CMS must not enact this proposed rule. Removing ACA eligibility undermines the law’s purpose, contravenes President Trump’s priorities, and jeopardizes the health and stability of hundreds of thousands of immigrant families,” the lawmakers concluded. 

To read the full text of the letter, click here.