Why aren't immigrants interested in health insurance?

They came here for the American dream, but a health policy analyst says ObamaCare may be another nightmare for legal immigrants.

People who are lawfully present in the United States are required to have some kind of health insurance, and they are entitled to benefits in the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare. The problem is HealthCare.gov's new 'EZ' application for coverage cannot be used by legal immigrants or naturalized U.S. citizens. That means Hispanics and Asians, two demographics with large populations in the United States, may face long lines in enrollment.

Hadley Heath Manning, director of health policy at the Independent Women's Forum (IWF), agrees that some people will have problems.

'They will have to go through more steps to confirm their eligibility, or their identity, or maybe their income or their citizenship status,' she predicts, 'but I think everyone's hoping that this year will be better than last year.'

The Obama administration has placed a high priority on signing up more Latinos for health insurance next year. However, in February 2014, before the first enrollment period ended, CNN Money reported that Latinos were shying away from signing up for health insurance on the exchanges. Reasons included the fact that many Latinos have never had insurance.

Manning sees a different issue at hand.

'Americans are used to accessing just about any healthcare service with health insurance. So, we go to the doctor's office and we pull out our insurance card because that's how most Americans pay for healthcare services. That's not the way it is in other parts of the world, which is a unique hurdle when the administration is trying to do outreach to these groups,' she poses. 'Sometimes we're starting at square one, trying to explain to people that here in the United States it's going to be very important for you to have some type of health insurance coverage.''

In September, the Commonwealth Fund reported that 23 percent of Latinos were still uninsured after the first enrollment period.