“However, we respect the Court’s decision,” he said. “We will work expeditiously to identify the resources required and the operational steps that need to be taken to integrate all eligible, legal immigrants into the Commonwealth Care program” — a subsidized insurance program created in 2006 under the state law that required most residents to have health coverage.
The court, in a unanimous decision written by Justice Robert Cordy, recognized the financial burden but said money could not factor in the ruling.
“If the plaintiffs’ right to equal protection of the laws has been violated … then it is our duty to say so,” the opinion said.
At the height of the recession, the Legislature in 2009 cut about 26,000 legal immigrants from Commonwealth Care to save $130 million. It created a separate health care plan called the Commonwealth Care Bridge Program, which restricted the hospitals and doctors people could use, came with more expensive premiums, and did not cover certain services, such as vision, hospice, and skilled nursing care. It was open only to people who were previously enrolled in Commonwealth Care, so new legal immigrants were not eligible even for this scaled back coverage.
Dr. Barbara Ogur, a primary care physician for Cambridge Health Alliance, said the 2009 change came as a shock to her immigrant patients, many of whom went without health care altogether in the years since. The Cambridge hospital system and Boston Medical Center, which play a major role in caring for immigrants in the Boston area, were not included in the Bridge program’s provider network, she said.
“It was just a tragedy,” she said. Many of those affected “were young and healthy and could maybe make it without it showing up on anybody’s radar screen. But it certainly showed up for us.”
