A small but growing number of states are extending government health benefits to children regardless of their immigration status.
Come January, Connecticut and New Jersey will join the nine states plus Washington, D.C., that already allow children without permanent legal status to enroll in either Medicaid, the public health plan for residents with lower incomes, or in its sister program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
The change is costing the states millions of dollars. Although the federal government usually pays for at least half the cost of those programs, the states extending health benefits to kids lacking permanent legal status do so without receiving any federal money.
