CHA Statement on Final Public Charge Rule
Statement by Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Health Association of the United States

CHA is extremely disappointed with the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the Administration’s "public charge" rule to take effect while legal challenges to the rule are pending in the courts. As CHA stated when the rule was proposed and has made clear in court filings, the expanded definition of public charge will have a devastating impact on legal immigrants and their citizen family members. Losses of coverage of this magnitude will also adversely affect public health and health system costs.

Implementation of the public charge rule is expected to lead to millions of legally present immigrants and citizens, the majority of them children, losing their health coverage or choosing not to enroll. We have already begun to see the chilling effects of the rule with the number of uninsured children growing and increasing uncompensated care costs in hospitals and clinics.

Given the inevitable impact of this on the health of so many individuals and families as well as on our health care system, we believe that the injunctions preventing the implementation of the rule were appropriate. CHA will continue to explore all legal and legislative avenues to oppose this harmful rule.

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