Editing Medicaid (section)

====Immigration status====
{{See also|Immigration to the United States}}

Legal permanent residents (LPRs) with a substantial work history (defined as 40 quarters of Social Security covered earnings) or military connection are eligible for the full range of major federal means-tested benefit programs, including Medicaid (Medi-Cal).<ref name=RL33809>{{cite report|title=RL33809 Noncitizen Eligibility for Federal Public Assistance: Policy Overview |date=December 12, 2016|publisher=[[Congressional Research Service]]|url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33809.html}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> LPRs entering after August 22, 1996, are barred from Medicaid for five years, after which their coverage becomes a state option, and states have the option to cover LPRs who are children or who are pregnant during the first five years. Noncitizen SSI recipients are eligible for (and required to be covered under) Medicaid. Refugees and asylees are eligible for Medicaid for seven years after arrival; after this term, they may be eligible at state option.

Nonimmigrants and unauthorized aliens are not eligible for most federal benefits, regardless of whether they are means tested, with notable exceptions for emergency services (e.g., Medicaid for emergency medical care), but states have the option to cover nonimmigrant and unauthorized aliens who are pregnant or who are children, and can meet the definition of "lawfully residing" in the United States. Special rules apply to several limited noncitizen categories: certain "cross-border" [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], [[Hmong people|Hmong]]/Highland Laotians, [[parole]]es and conditional entrants, and cases of abuse.

Aliens outside the United States who seek to obtain [[Visa policy of the United States|visas]] at U.S. consulates overseas or admission at U.S. ports of entry are generally denied entry if they are deemed "likely at any time to become a public charge."<ref name=R43220>{{cite report|title=R43220 Public Charge Grounds of Inadmissibility and Deportability: Legal Overview |date=February 6, 2017|publisher=[[Congressional Research Service]]|url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43220.html}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> Aliens within the United States who seek to adjust their status to that of lawful permanent resident (LPR), or who entered the United States without inspection, are also generally subject to exclusion and [[deportation]] on public charge grounds. Similarly, LPRs and other aliens who have been admitted to the United States are removable if they become a public charge within five years after the date of their entry due to causes that preexisted their entry.

A 1999 policy letter from immigration officials defined "public charge" and identified which benefits are considered in public charge determinations, and the policy letter underlies current regulations and other guidance on the public charge grounds of inadmissibility and deportability. Collectively, the various sources addressing the meaning of public charge have historically suggested that an alien's receipt of public benefits, per se, is unlikely to result in the alien being deemed to be removable on public charge grounds.