Booker, Castro, 86 Democrats Push for Outreach to Help DACA Recipients Apply for ACA Coverage

Letter

Starting on November 1, 2024, DACA recipients will be able to enroll in health coverage through Healthcare.gov or their state-based marketplace. While this timeline aligns with the annual open enrollment period, DACA recipients will be simultaneously eligible for a special enrollment period, allowing them to start using health insurance benefits by December 1, 2024 if enrolled by November 15, 2024. Given this unique and time-sensitive opportunity, it is imperative that DACA recipients know of this opportunity, are informed about their eligibility, and are able to navigate the registration process so that they can take full advantage of their new access to medical care.

To accomplish this goal, HHS should invest resources into paid media outreach, funding to community organizations to disseminate information, and HHS staff time into a targeted outreach program for newly eligible DACA recipients. Given that most DACA recipients are under 30, and identified as a “hard to reach” population, HHS must ensure information is not only available but actively and prominently disseminated. With a plurality of DACA recipients preferring to get information about health coverage from a government website, HHS needs to ensure this information is not only available, but actively publicized and promoted to them.

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