Rosa María Carranza, 67, spent more than three decades working in child development and education, contributing tens of thousands of dollars into Medicare and Social Security over 24 years. Yet under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July by President Trump, she and an estimated 100,000 other lawfully present immigrants will be cut out of Medicare by early next year. The legislation barred certain categories of lawfully present immigrants—including temporary protected status holders, refugees, asylum-seekers, survivors of domestic violence, trafficking victims, and people with work visas—from the program.
Carranza left El Salvador in 1991 during a brutal civil war, leaving behind three young children to earn money for her family. She overstayed her visa until 2001, when she qualified for temporary protected status after two earthquakes struck El Salvador, killing more than 1,100 people and displacing 1.3 million. She worked overnight shifts babysitting newborns and substitute-teaching in San Francisco schools to fund her children’s education in El Salvador and her own studies at City College of San Francisco, where she earned a degree in child development. She co-founded Escuelita del Bosque, a Spanish immersion preschool that teaches children outdoors in Oakland.
Immediate Health Vulnerabilities
Late last year, Carranza was diagnosed with high blood pressure. In January, she woke up with a tight chest and went to urgent care because it had spiked to dangerous levels. A few weeks later, she tripped on a curb while walking and fell to the ground, waking the next day with a swollen foot and subsequently diagnosed with arthritis. These were scary moments, but she was grateful to pay only $10 for urgent care and $5 to see her primary care doctor. However, that will change when she loses Medicare by early next year. Health experts say this is the first time Congress has taken away Medicare from any group, with 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants projected to lose health insurance overall.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/06/nx-s1-5770484/immigrants-tps-medicare-social-security-eligibility