While the Affordable Care Act has led to impressive increases in the number of Americans with health insurance, the current enrollment poses a number of challenges for legal immigrants: those in the U.S. legally who lack insurance and are qualified to obtain coverage through the federally facilitated marketplace and state exchanges.

Researchers at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families have identified a number of obstacles to enrollment for legal immigrants, including complicated applications, and have recommended ways of addressing this and other obstacles standing in the path of legal immigrants obtaining health insurance.

This is an important issue for the many private safety-net hospitals that serve communities with large immigrant populations.

To learn more about the special challenges legal immigrants face and proposals for overcoming those challenges, see this Georgetown Center for Children and Families report Getting Enrollment Right for Immigrant Families: Steps the Federally Facilitated Health Insurance Marketplace Can Take to Improve the Application Process for Eligible Lawfully Present Immigrants.