Tuesday, Jul 5 2011 3:22PM

New changes to California's healthcare system under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 may remove affordable options for 220,000 immigrant children in the state, according to a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which will put an added strain on community clinics in urban and rural communities across the state.

The center states this figure amounts to roughly 20 percent of all uninsured children in California. Roughly 40,000 of those children could possibly be eligible for affordable healthcare under the new regulations, but may never apply because of confusion surrounding the new rules for the California Health Benefit Exchange and the Medi-Cal program.

The report states there are roughly 30,000 children of undocumented aliens in the state, such as migrant workers, who would be excluded from the state's Health Benefit Exchange. Another 150,000 wouldn't be eligible from the expansion of the Medi-Cal program because they were illegal immigrants or legal immigrants who hadn't been in the U.S. for at least five years.

The study adds roughly 40,000 children of legal non-citizens likely will be eligible for affordable healthcare programs, even though their parents won't be.

"Health care reform restrictions raise some very unpleasant questions about our willingness as a society to let children go without care," Ninez Ponce, the study's lead author and faculty associate for the center, said in the report. "And confusion over the rules may result in even eligible children being cut off from coverage."

Researchers said 45 percent of uninsured children in immigrant families used community health clinics in 2007. Compounding the issue, a proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut funding for these centers nationwide by 60 percent.