Health care advocates are warning immigrants and community members about upcoming changes to eligibility for health coverage through MassHealth.
The changes are the result of the Trump administrations’ One Big Beautiful Bill, signed in July 2025, and are ultimately creating eligibility changes that affect immigrants’ access to health coverage and state Medicare programs. Many immigrants will now have to pay more out of pocket.
“Effective October 1, 2026, full MassHealth coverage for individuals who have Standard or Care Plus, will no longer be available to certain immigrants,” said Jennifer Cedor, supervising attorney for the Immigrant Health Initiative at Health Law Advocates, in a presentation on Monday. The online panel was held by group, Health Care for All.
“This will affect approximately 7,300 members. Some will be moved to Family Assistance, but a subset of them will be downgraded to Mass Limited and Health Safety Net only,” Cedor said.
Starting next month, 7,300 immigrants will have a change in their coverage under MassHealth. Eligibility changes will impact lawfully present immigrants only.
“People 65 or older with income of 100% of the federal poverty level or less, and low assets will qualify for family assistance,” said Cedor. “People with disabilities under 65 with income of 100% or less will qualify for family assistance, and the rest of the 7,300 immigrants impacted will be moved to Mass Health Limited and Health Safety Net unless they have a specific change,” she said.
The largest percentage of impacted immigrants on Oct. 1 who are covered by ConnectorCare are in Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex and Worcester counties, according to Health Care For All. The languages of people impacted are Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Chinese and Russian.
There are exemptions for immigrants who have green cards, have a specific legal classification called “Cuban Haitian Entrant,” or those considered “COFA migrants,” which means they’re in a special program for specific immigrants from the federated states of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands or Palau.
State program eligibility also remains the same; those are the Health Safety Net and MassHealth Family Assistance, for example. There are no changes to MassHealth for people who are pregnant and 12-months postpartum, and no change to MassHealth Limited eligibility.
MassHealth Limited provides emergency health services to people who have an immigration status that keeps them from getting more coverage. The Health Safety Net pays community health centers and many hospitals for some essential health services provided to qualified uninsured and underinsured Massachusetts residents.
Immigrants should have already received notice, about 2,000 in June, and over 5,000 in July and August, said Hannah Frigand, senior director of the Health Care For All’s HelpLine and public programs.
“That notice explained what these changes were and gave people the opportunity to provide additional immigration documents if they could seek additional coverage,” she said. Another final notice went out about a week ago.
“So this is the notice that would say, as of Oct. 1, you are now going to be on MassHealth Limited, and you’re no longer eligible based on your immigration status. And it does have an appeal rights,” said Frigand.
Some immigrants who have an income over the federal poverty level but below 133% can move to ConnectCare through the end of the year, but that’s a small group.
A huge shift has already happened. Around 37,000 people lost their access to a type of Connector Care in January of 2026. The majority moved to Mass Health Limited and the Health Safety Net.
