Legal immigrants are eligible to sign up for healthcare under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but many are running into problems doing so on Healthcare.gov, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Many who were born outside of the country are struggling to prove their identities and upload documents that prove they are in the U.S. legally to the federal insurance marketplace. For instance, many consumers were unable to find the upload function on the website necessary to attach required documents to support their applications. While the function has since been restored, it works inconsistently, according to the report.
Once the upload function was restored, consumers ran into the problem of the documents lists not including green cards and other common identification documents as options. Consumers were reluctant to upload their documents under other categories for fear it could be considered making a false statement. According to the report, the documents pull-down list issue on the website has also since been fixed.
Additionally, some consumers are being directed to Medicaid despite the fact that they don't qualify because a workaround on the site that is supposed to figure out if a person is ineligible isn't showing up for all users.
Issues on the site are due in part to changes made to the enrollment process in 2010. The health law excluded illegal immigrants from qualifying for federal healthcare but, in doing so, made it more difficult for legal immigrants to get through as well.
A spokesman for CMS has stated the agency will continue to address issues with the website enrollment instructions and streamline the process, according to the report.
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