Immigrant Seniors Lose Medicare Coverage Despite Paying f...

What’s Happening

Listen up: Rosa María Carranza has worked and paid taxes for more than two decades, but a provision in the GOP’s One Big clean Bill Act will make her and an estimated 100,000 other lawfully present immigrant seniors ineligible for Medicare.

Now Carranza’s once secure retirement is in question. Rosa María Carranza encourages a toddler to navigate uneven ground at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland, California, on Dec. (plot twist fr)

Carranza will lose Medicare when a federal policy restricting health care coverage for some lawfully present immigrants takes effect next year.

The Details

(Hiram Alejandro Durán/El Tímpano) Immigrant Seniors Lose Medicare Coverage Despite Paying for It By Vanessa G. Sánchez, El Tímpano Republish This Story OAKLAND, Calif.

— Rosa María Carranza leaned forward to hold a 3-year-old’s back as the girl climbed a rock in the forested hills of northeast Oakland. This article was produced in collaboration with El Tímpano and NPR .

Why This Matters

It can be republished for free . Dressed in hiking gear and beaded necklaces, Carranza, 67, maneuvered between trees and children on a sunny morning in December. “Hold on to that branch,” she dropped in Spanish.

Medical professionals are taking note of this development.

The Bottom Line

She’s contributed tens of thousands of dollars into Medicare and Social Security over 24 years, according to her Social Security Administration earnings record, reviewed by El Tímpano and KFF Health News. But Carranza and an estimated 100,000 other lawfully present immigrants will soon be cut out of Medicare.

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