Reader question:

If I am not a legal resident of the United States, but my child is, then can I stil apply for child health insurance for them? Would I be reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service?

Gloria

Not at all.

The only thing that the people who run the KidCare child health insurance program in Florida are looking at whenever they are approving or denying applications for insurance coverage is the child. If the child is not a legal resident of the United States, then there will be a problem and the child will not be eligible for coverage. However, if the child has acceptable legal status but the parent does not, that does not come in to play at all.

Even if the parent who is applying for the insurance for their child does not have legal immigration status in the United States, the state of Florida will not report the parent to the Immigration and Naturalization services when the parent applies for child health insurance for their kid. A parent would only be reported to the INS if they were applying for something like cash welfare or food stamps and they are not legal or they have a deportation order out on them.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.