Delaware steps in to fill legal void in Court challenge to health care access
Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced that Delaware, New Jersey, and 12 other states are joining together to defend health insurance access for Dreamers from court challenges.
The motion to intervene comes as the incoming Trump Administration is expected to halt federal efforts to legally defend a federal regulation granting access to Affordable Care Act exchanges for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients — commonly referred to as Dreamers — from a legal challenge brought by the State of Kansas.
“Dreamers are Americans,” said Attorney General Jennings. “They grew up with us. We know them from our workplaces, our houses of worship, and our neighborhoods. They are veterans, public servants, medical workers, and entrepreneurs. They deserve as much dignity and opportunity as everyone — including access to health care. That’s why we’re stepping in to support them.”
Established in 2012, DACA enables certain young people, who came to the United States as children and have lived here continuously since 2007, to avoid immediate fear of deportation for revocable two-year periods. Separate regulations establish that individuals who have received grants of deferred action may work lawfully in the country.
Last year, the Biden Administration issued a regulation that expands health care access to Dreamers by making them eligible to purchase health insurance through ACA exchanges. Dreamers previously lacked access to ACA exchanges, even though Congress extended access to all who are “lawfully present” in the United States – a term that consistently is used to include those whom the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has temporarily allowed chosen not to remove via deferred action. The Final Rule remedies these discrepancies.
The Final Rule took effect on November 1, but has been the object of ongoing legal challenges. Kansas and other state sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota in August 2024, asking the court to delay implementation of the Final Rule pending judicial review. The District Court prevented implementation in some states, but left the Final Rule in place in most states—including Delaware.
The District Court’s ruling is currently on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. With the incoming Trump Administration planning to stop defending the rule against legal challenges, Delaware and its partner states are stepping in to defend it.
The States will be harmed in several ways if the rule is eliminated in court. In general, Dreamers contribute an estimated $6.2 billion in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in State and local taxes each year and provide critical financial support to their families, including 250,000 children who are U.S. citizens. But they are three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population, which puts them at risk and drives up costs for the health care system as a whole.
In addition to Delaware and New Jersey, other jurisdictions joining today’s filing include Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Vermont.