MIAMI -- More than 200,000 foreign-born people who bought insurance through President Barack Obama's health care initiative stand to lose their coverage this month if they don't submit proof this week that they are legally in the country, but language barriers and computer glitches are hindering efforts to alert them.
The government mailed letters in English and Spanish last month notifying about 300,000 people that if immigration and citizenship documents aren't submitted by Friday, their coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will end Sept. 30.
However, few seem to be responding. U.S. Health and Human Services officials released information Tuesday showing that 239,000 were receiving final notices seeking the documentation.
Immigration advocates said the notices in only two languages don't take into account the wide variety of languages spoken by those who come to the U.S.
The advocates fear that most who haven't responded don't understand the gravity of the situation or think they have already complied. They said many people who received the letters had filed the documents either by mail or computer, but the paperwork was not processed.
A line at the bottom of the letter advises the recipients to call a phone number if they need the notice translated, said Amy Jones of the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition Inc. in Philadelphia.
"People do not know what they say or that they're important," Jones said, referring to the notices. "Many have been putting them aside or throwing them away."
Her agency, which has helped 450 legal immigrants sign up for health insurance under the new law, is calling enrollees to see if they received a letter and to help them keep their coverage.
Early on, some healthcare.gov enrollment counselors said they did not input immigration or citizenship information to the glitch-plagued federal website so they could complete the applications. Later, they sent in the documents when the upload feature was working.
Of the 8 million people who signed up for private coverage through the Affordable Care Act, about 1 million foreign-born people originally received notices asking for proof that they are in the U.S. legally, and nearly 700,000 have been verified.
Under the health care law, illegal aliens are not eligible for the program or to receive insurance subsidies.
Florida and Texas have the largest numbers of people whose immigration and citizenship information on file with the government conflicts with what they wrote on their health insurance applications.
Nearly 100,000 in Florida received letters seeking further documentation, yet two of the largest health advocacy groups in South Florida said they've gotten very few phone calls seeking help.
Vicki Tucci, an attorney with Legal Aid in West Palm Beach, said she's heard from fewer than 20 clients, despite meeting with thousands during open enrollment. A few thought the letter was a scam and ignored it, she said.
Perhaps most frustrating, she said, all but one of the letter recipients she spoke with had already sent in the documents.
"They had their certified mail receipt with them to prove that they sent it," Tucci said.
Bhagawat Bastola sent in his documents when he first applied for health coverage. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old from Nepal recently received two letters asking for them again. He re-sent them, but Jones' agency was unable to confirm whether the government had received them. Without confirmation, he worries that he may lose coverage.
"I feel frustrated because it's the same letter every time," said Bastola, who works at a Philadelphia supermarket and was previously uninsured. "It's just a waste of time coming here time and again," he added, during a visit to Jones' office.
Federal health officials Tuesday said that they checked their records in August and sent letters only to consumers whom they hadn't yet heard from despite multiple attempts. Consumers can call the helpline for a real-time update to verify whether the documents were received, Health and Human Services spokesman Benjamin Wakana said.
Officials indicated that consumers like Bastola are receiving multiple requests because staff members are still processing the documents. The officials said they're working as quickly as possible to sort through them, but they didn't give a time frame.
In other cases, healthcare.gov used the information it received from consumers and checked it against databases with other government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, where the information isn't updated as quickly or may contain errors, especially for naturalized citizens.
Consumers who have submitted the requested documents but have not received confirmation by the deadline will remain covered while their applications are being processed, Benjamin Wakana said.
He said only those who don't submit documents are at risk of losing coverage. Those who lose coverage may be liable for paying back at least part of any subsidy they received, up to a cap.
A Section on 09/03/2014