Immigrant communities face a critical deadline on Friday, September 5: submit additional documentation to verify their citizenship or immigration status, or potentially lose health coverage through the marketplace at the end of September. Yesterday we helped sponsor a press briefing primarily for ethnic media to help spread the word and educate immigrant communities about the looming deadline. Please help us spread the word, whether its through your organizations email lists, social media, or traditional media. See the links below for more details, but first the facts!

More than 300,000 individuals in 36 states received notices from the federal Marketplace that they need to submit additional documents. Consumers in Florida and Texas received the most notices, but consumers most of the 36 states also received these letters (AL, AK, AZ, AR, DE, GA, IL, IN, AI, KS, LA, ME, MS, MO, MT, NE, NJ, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, WV, WI and WY). States running their own marketplace may also be following these federal deadlines, or may have slightly different procedures and deadlines. Of the 3000,000, about 57,000 notices were sent to Spanish-speakers.

However, many families do not know they need to respond because they received the initial notice in English, did not understand its importance, or believe they have already complied with the notice because they submitted the documents with the help of assisters when they originally enrolled in the marketplace. Even though they may be frustrated with multiple attempts to submit verification, it is important to respond so that they don’t lose their coverage.

We have not forgotten the importance of improving enrollment and communications with immigrant communities. CCF and other advocates are continuing to urge the Obama administration and HHS to eliminate the language barriers and system problems that make it difficult for clients to gain enrollment and submit verification.

NILC’s press release

Link to audio of August 27 press briefing

Hashtags: #BySept5, #5DeSept

Links to informational materials:

• Letter to U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell from health care and immigrant rights advocates urging the removal of serious barriers that keep eligible immigrant families from obtaining health coverage:
• CCF Blog post on the letter above.
• NILC FAQ – “Resolving Citizenship or Immigration Status Inconsistencies or Data-Matching Problems for People Who Use the Federally Facilitated Marketplace”:
- English  Spanish
• Insure Central Texas informational flyer available in English and Spanish
• Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Inc. (SEAMAAC) in Philadelphia, PA, informational materials available in Chin-Burmese, Chinese, Karen, Nepali and Vietnamese:
• Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, FL : For information about outreach to immigrant families in Florida
• Healthcare.gov: “How do I resolve an inconsistency?”