Further to our recent blog on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and its plan to cut Medicaid funding, here’s some more bad news brought to you by your government. This time the target is Non-Citizens.
At present there are some severe limitations to eligibility for those who are here legally but not US citizens. For example, Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) who meet the financial criteria can only qualify after five years. And, despite the constant chatter from many, those without legal status in this country have no means to access any form of Federally funded Medicaid.
However, it’s about to get worse. In an act of what can only fairly be described as heartless maliciousness, the powers-that-be have decided that they should deny Medicaid eligibility to a few categories of low-income non-citizens who currently qualify.
If all goes to plan, as of October 1, 2026 only LPRs; those listed as Cuban and Haitian Entrants; and people residing in the US under a Compact of Free Association with Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands will have a chance of qualifying for Medicaid.
Those due to be denied access will include people resettled in the United States as refugees; those granted asylum or withholding of removal (protection from deportation based of fear of persecution in home country) in the United States; survivors of domestic violence with a pending or approved application for lawful status under the Violence Against Women Act; survivors of trafficking with a pending or approved T visa; and people with Temporary Protected Status.
Anyone here under any of those criteria would have clearly experienced times of near unimaginable hardship. Yet they must prepare for further injustice; this time meted out by the government of the very country in which they sought salvation.