BOLINGBROOK, IL JUNE 16, 2025: As the attacks from the federal government against immigrants continue to unfold, the Governor and IL General Assembly made a political decision to END life-saving health care coverage for more than 32,000 people in Illinois, enrolled in the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, known as HBIA. Despite a deeply critical & difficult fight to keep it open, today with the Governor’s signature, Illinois turned its back on our community’s health. During the pandemic, immigrants were rightfully praised as essential frontline workers and heroes for keeping our state running, from the food to the manufacturing industries. Many lost their lives, and we remember them every day. In a historic move, in 2020 Illinois expanded Medicaid to low-income undocumented seniors, followed by undocumented older adults, giving thousands a life line for the first time in decades. In addition, it gave our medical community the ability to fully diagnose and treat chronic conditions resulting in tax-payers and our hospitals saving millions of dollars.
HBIA will end on July 1, 2025, which effectively & permanently ends coverage for low-income immigrants between the ages of 42 and 64 years old. The overwhelming majority of people enrolled in this program have no other coverage options, and will depend on sliding-scale community clinics that already do as much as they can. This means that Maria here in our community will no longer be able to continue her chemotherapy treatments. This means that Kofi will no longer be able to get dialysis, or Cristina her expensive diabetes medication. Bottom line: many loving, full, contributing, tax-paying members of our community will die because of this decision.
We have been told it was just too expensive; we offered revenue solutions that were not taken. We have been told this was a hard vote; not harder than what we live seeing our loved ones sick and without options. As a leading undocu-led organization, we cannot sit idly by or celebrate the passage of the state budget while so many are set to lose life saving care. This will result in a higher cost that will fall on our local health departments. Regardless, we are working on strengthening our partnerships and combining our resources to meet the upcoming wave of uninsured individuals. Our immigrant communities do not have the luxury of giving up. We will not give up. We will continue to organize the fight for healthcare for all because healthcare is a human right. If you or someone you know is currently enrolled in HBIA and you have questions, contact our office.
We call on our elected officials to choose a different path than Republicans and demand them to come up with a solution for restoring access to health coverage for all of us. We know the current federal administration is determined to effectuate more cuts to social benefits that will hurt our entire community, but we must not succumb to fear or play by their same playbook. Because who will be next?
