‘Snowball issue’: CT undocumented immigrants share impact of not having insurance

CT Insider – Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni

HARTFORD – Michelle Ham moved to Connecticut from Honduras with her family when she was two years old and has lived in constant worry of getting sick. Ham, now 21, like many other undocumented immigrants, doesn’t qualify for the state’s Medicaid program and worries about how she and her family can pay for medical treatment when the time comes for a hospital visit.

When Ham was admitted to the emergency room a few years ago, she said doctors informed her that she needed surgery to remove several large cysts around her ovaries. Instead of scheduling it, she started to take medication to see if the cysts would heal on their own, but “lucky enough,” she connected with a doctor who performed the surgery pro bono.

A cyst later reappeared and Ham said she had to pay a lot of money out of pocket to see a specialist and get the medication she needed to heal.

“Expanding Husky health benefits would give me the opportunity to not have to worry about having to pay and wonder where the money would have to come from,” a speaker said at a recent rally at the State Capitol, reading Ham’s testimony in support of two bills that would expand Medicaid, also known as HUSKY, to income-eligible residents 26 years old and younger, regardless of immigration status.

Although stories of the undocumented community’s experience echoed through the Capitol earlier this year, many of the affected people, like Ham, didn’t attend in person and some weren’t named out of the concern of becoming a target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of anti-immigrant executive orders from the Trump administration.

However, advocates and community members alike said these federal actions underscore the importance of state legislative action, despite the potential pushback.

“If Connecticut wants a future that includes healthy families and a stable, prosperous, growing workforce that is ready to meet the needs of our future, Connecticut must ensure that we all have access to health insurance regardless of our immigration status,” Ham’s testimony continued.

About 58% of the state’s 113,000 undocumented residents living in Connecticut lack health insurance, according to the Connecticut Health Foundation, an independent health grant-making and public policy nonprofit. The community faces many obstacles accessing health insurance due to their undocumented status, like eligibility restrictions, working low-wage jobs that don’t offer health insurance, language barriers and overall fear and mistrust in the system.

Carolina Bortolleto, a leader of HUSKY 4 Immigrants Coalition, said she’s heard many stories of people who have refused treatment after experiencing an injury that eventually impacted their mobility.

“It’s a snowball issue. Any health issue that you have, it’s a lot more cost-effective and easier on the patient to treat it as soon as it pops up, instead of until it gets bad enough,” Bortolleto said.

This is what happened to the mom of a 17-year-old Danbury resident and member of Connecticut Students for a Dream, an undocumented youth-led statewide advocacy group. A member of the group shared the student’s story at the Capitol this month. The testimony was submitted without the name of the student out of fear that his family would be targeted for their immigration status. The student described how his mother waited nearly three years before seeking care for an infected tooth because they didn’t have health insurance. She eventually went to see an unlicensed doctor who performed surgery to extract the tooth.

“The options were to take out the tooth or stay in pain,” the teen said, describing the worry it caused their family. “We don’t have the money for another option.”

Connecticut has expanded HUSKY insurance to children, regardless of immigration status, over the years. The state was covering more than 12,000 undocumented children 12 and under before thousands more became eligible when the age limit was increased to 15 in July 2024. HUSKY also extends insurance coverage to pregnant and postpartum women.

One member of Connecticut Worker Center, a grassroots immigrant community worker center, said her son was diagnosed with kidney stones shortly after they arrived in the U.S. The mother, whose story was anonymously shared at the rally by a leading member of the center, said her son was only able to make a full recovery and now gets routine check ups because of his access to Husky.

Building off of years of momentum, the two new proposed bills aim at expanding HUSKY coverage to income-eligible adults up to 26 years old. One of them, introduced by Rep. Juan Candelaria, D-New Haven, would also increase coverage to adults over the age of 65 years old. Both proposals await further action in the committee.

Dr. Leonela Villegas, a pediatrician based in Hartford, said it’s “morally distressing” when she and other providers aren’t able to offer care because of cost limits. She said providers often spend more time “fighting the fight” with insurance companies to get their patients care instead of helping them.

In recent days, Villegas said she’s talked to several patients about the anxieties and fears they have over how federal immigration legislation will impact themselves, their families and their friends. She said it is hard to see her patients undergo so much trauma, knowing that the stress they are experiencing now may add up later in life.

“As a pediatrician, I made an oath to practice medicine with integrity, humility and compassion for all children,” she said in her speech. “When insurance and documentation status starts playing a role, it is devastating for everyone.”

Several legislators who have been working to expand HUSKY for several years shared their anger and disbelief at the anti-immigrant rhetoric and federal orders.

“In Connecticut, there are many of us, including myself, who deeply believe that regardless of your immigration status, you are residents of the state of Connecticut,” said Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, adding her commitment to expanding HUSKY regardless of the federal pressures as co-chair of the Human Services Committee.

Rep. Hubert Delany, D-Stamford, said many legally present and undocumented immigrants contribute to the economy through state and local taxes and yet are excluded from “accessing the care they help fund.”

He said the expansion could ultimately save the state millions by helping reduce emergency Medicaid and uncompensated care costs at hospitals by promoting access to primary care. It also sends a message that legislators are “fighting” for “our immigrant neighbors.”

“It is fiscally responsible, it is socially equitable, it is practical and it is progressive,” Delany said. “But these goals they go beyond the economics. It is about who we are as a people.”

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