Maria Sanchez immigrated to the Chicago area from Mexico about 30 years ago. Now 87, she’s still living in the U.S. without authorization. Like many longtime immigrants, she has worked — and paid taxes, including Medicare taxes — all that time.
But Sanchez never had health insurance, and when she turned 65, she couldn’t enroll in Medicare. She has never had preventive care or screenings. No physicals. No cholesterol checks. No mammograms.
“Nada, nada, nada,” she said in an interview conducted in Spanish. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
When she did get sick, she delayed seeking care until she was so ill that she was twice hospitalized with pneumonia. She finally got covered last year under a landmark Illinois program for older people without legal residency that took effect in December 2020.
Democratic-led states such as Illinois are increasingly opening public insurance programs to immigrants lacking permanent legal status. A dozen had already covered children; even more provided prenatal coverage. But now more states are covering adults living in the country without authorization — and some are phasing in coverage for seniors, who are more expensive and a harder political sell than kids.
The expansions recognize the costs that patients living here illegally can otherwise impose on hospitals. But the policies are under harsh attack from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans wh …