State senator pushes to expanded health care access to undocumented immigrants

The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus will introduce a bill during the legislative session to expand Medicaid access to all Nevadans, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.

“Nevadans deserve a state that looks out for them, where you don’t have to worry about leaving the state to receive the care that you need or wonder how you’ll pay for your medical bills because of the lack of health insurance coverage,” said state Sen. Fabian Doñate, D-las Vegas, in a news conference announcing the proposal.

The Nevada Health Opportunities, Planning and Expansion (HOPE) Act would increase Medicaid access for thousands of undocumented immigrants who may fit the economic threshold for insurance but don’t receive it due to their citizenship status, Doñate said. Doñate, flanked by undocumented Nevadans during the announcement, said it would cost about $160 million biennially to run this program.

Nevada has the sixth-highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, according to a 2019 study from the Guinn Center. The Nevada Division of Insurance reported that around 11% of Nevada’s population was uninsured in 2022.

This bill would cover the estimated 94,500 undocumented people in the state without Medicaid, Doñate said. It would greatly help families like that of Rico Campo, who spoke about struggles without health care when he was younger.

Campo and his family emigrated from Mexico in 1992 when he was 3 years old. He said his family’s life was “turned upside down” when one of his older brothers, Juan Carlos, was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer at age 17.

During that time, Campo’s family received financial aid for mortgage and utility bills but did not qualify for Medicaid due to their immigration statuses. Juan Carlos Campo died before graduating from high school and the family was left with over $300,000 of debt — an overwhelming amount that led to them losing their house, Rico Campo said.

“We were stripped of our dignity, forced to bear the burden of Carlitos’ illness and debt on our own,” Rico Campo, now the lead organizer with Make the Way Nevada, said through tears. “Undocumented people are humans, and we deserve access to health care like everyone else.”

Physicians also voiced their support for the passage of this bill, citing that the Nevada health care system “has basically failed undocumented community members in our society.”

Dr. Maria Fernandez, a family and medicine doctor at the Community Health Alliance, has seen a variety of people walk into her office, from newborns to 97-year-olds.

Some of the undocumented immigrants she has helped at her clinic come in with “major catastrophic” injuries or conditions as a result of not seeing a doctor due to lack of health care coverage — like a 40-something-year-old diabetic whose leg had to be amputated below the knee after an ulcer was found in his leg.

Oscar Delgado, CEO at the Community Health Alliance, said that undocumented people are less likely to have a doctor’s visit in the past 12 months and often go without medical care because they fear the cost or having their immigration status exposed.

“Hesitation can have severe consequences,” Delgado said.

Fernandez said she also hears many undocumented folks say they don’t know they have access to medical care or are focusing on other priorities — like supporting their families back in their home countries.

Putting off medical care or not being able to receive it at all can be deadly, but sometimes the cost can leave undocumented folks in a difficult situation as well.

“Yes, I can take care of the diabetes and I can take care of him, but the impact to the health care system, the medical costs … that’s already happened through the emergency room, through his long hospital stay, through the big bills that he’s receiving,” Fernandez said.

The proposal will be introduced into the Legislature within the next few days, Doñate said. A similar expansion happened last year in California, where the state’s Department of Health Care Services enhanced Medi-cal for all residents ages 50 and older, regardless of immigration status.

Since announcing this policy goal at the start of the 82nd legislative session in February, Doñate said he has had conversations with Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and GOP lawmkers to show the importance of the bill. Lombardo’s staff has previously told the Sun that the governor would not comment on draft legislation until it makes it to his desk.

“Collectively, we know that our state can do a little better when it comes to health care, which is why this bill is focused on economic development and closing the gaps that we have in accessing capital,” Doñate said. “At the bottom line, we know that we have to do a better job of taking care of one another, and those investments are worthy.”