Healthy Communities: Shifting Toward Inclusive Immigration Policy

Abstract

In this issue of Pediatrics, Cholera et a 1 used a controlled interrupted time series design to examine differences in health care use of Latinx children as it relates to federal immigration policy enacted in 2017. Electronic medical record data from four major health care systems in North Carolina were analyzed before and after restrictive immigration policy was enacted after the 2016 election. Among Latinx children in the outpatient setting, they found a sustained increase in visit cancellation for the uninsured subgroup, a proxy for undocumented immigrant children in North Carolina. 1