ATLANTA, GA – Starting August 25, 2025, a provision of the federal Marketplace Integrity and Affordability final rule will go into effect that strips Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients of their eligibility to enroll in marketplace health coverage. There are about 17,700 DACA recipients in Georgia who will become ineligible to purchase a plan on the exchange and, in some cases, lose their current coverage. Georgia Access is required to disenroll current DACA enrollees by the end of September.
The Final Rule will have significant impacts on Georgia’s State-Based Health Insurance Marketplace (SBM). Georgia Access, now the second-largest SBM in the country, enrolled over 1.5 million Georgians in its first year of operation, including about 225,000 new consumers. These numbers reflect the program’s importance as a primary access point for health coverage in the state.
Under this policy change, Georgia Access will no longer recognize DACA recipients as “lawfully present,” cutting them off from marketplace enrollment. Starting August 25, the state will block new applicants, and on September 30, it will remove current enrollees from their plans. The state will notify affected individuals, many of whom rely on this coverage to afford doctor visits, prescriptions, and other essential care.
“This change will take affordable coverage away from a group of Georgians who have built their lives here and contribute daily to our state,” said Whitney Griggs, Director of Health Policy at Georgians for a Healthy Future. “While DACA recipients likely make up a small portion of Georgia Access enrollees, this decision will have an outsized impact on their lives and communities. This change also comes at a time when other federal policy shifts will put hundreds of thousands of Georgians at risk of losing their health coverage, further destabilizing Georgia’s health system.”