Connecticut’s public health care will be expanded to cover more undocumented kids this summer — but advocates want lawmakers to do more to ensure medical coverage is available for older teenagers as well.
Doctors, students and lawmakers rallied at the Capitol on Wednesday and Thursday to call on the legislature to expand Husky Healthcare to undocumented children until they turn 18.
Christopher Cabrera is an Ecuadorian immigrant and student at Gateway Community College. He has no health insurance, and said living in Connecticut without it has been a “tough journey.”
“The simple act of falling sick becomes a nightmare when you are undocumented,” Cabrera said. “Knowing that a simple visit to the hospital comes with a high cost that is simply unaffordable.”
Currently, kids are only covered until age 12 — thanks to legislation passed last session, that will go up to 15 on July 1.
State Representative Jillian Gilchrest (D-West Hartford) said she supports expanding the age and, in the future, even removing the age barriers entirely.
“There are legislators who are working to push for not only 18, there are many of us who'd like to see HUSKY for everyone here in the state,” Gilchrest said. “Because if it's not you, it's your family member. And so why do we have this arbitrary age cut off?”
Lawmakers say expanding HUSKY to 18 will cost just under $2 million, but that it’s unlikely to pass this year because they are trying to keep the budget tight.
It’s also one of more than 600 bills waiting for a vote in the legislature.
“Our session ends on May 8,” Gilchrest said. “And, as you've probably heard, these are tough budget times. There are some of us who don't think it's that tough of a time, I think there is money that could be used.”
