Film Image
COVER/AGE
Producer: California Immigrant Policy Center
2019
Color
24 minutes
US
English
English

COVER/AGE

COVER/AGE examines the lack of healthcare access for undocumented immigrants in California, and how two undocumented individuals are advocating to fight this exclusion. One protagonist is Emma, an elderly Pilipina caregiver, who has spent over a decade providing care for others. Over the course of the film, we see Emma get ready early in the morning to care for an elderly patient who is not much older than her. Ironically, while Emma was providing care to insured, ailing patients, she herself was battling both illness and the U.S. health system which excluded her simply because of her immigration status. Emma’s story highlights how undocumented domestic workers are integrated in the healthcare industry, but they themselves
don’t have access to the care they deserve in order to maintain their own wellness.

The other protagonist is Héctor (they/them), one of the young adult founders of the immigrant health movement in California. Through the film, we learn of their important activism and organizing, from mobilizing around healthcare with legislators in the state capitol to training other undocumented immigrants to advocate for themselves. While Héctor is engaged in the bigger realm of legislative transformation, their personal journey unveils a deeper analysis of what health justice means: Beyond the need to visit the doctor’s office, access to wellness for all communities must include a more holistic healing that recognizes traumas communities have accrued from their lived experiences.

As Emma and Héctor navigate the complex health policy system, critical gaps in a health system that excludes undocumented migrants reveal the profound and harmful impact on the community. At the same time, steadfast organizing by community leaders and advocates underscores the resilience of immigrants in the face of these challenges. As the conversation around universal healthcare continues to gain momentum on the national stage, this film highlights the urgency of expanding healthcare access to undocumented people by centering the unwavering voices of immigrant health justice leaders.
Since 2014, California has reduced its number of uninsured residents from 7 million to 3 million people thanks to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and additional state reforms. Despite this progress, the ACA explicitly and unjustly excludes undocumented immigrants from health coverage through federally funded programs, including Medi-Cal. The Health4All Coalition was formed by California Immigrant Policy Center and Health Access California to advocate for removing these exclusions based on immigration status.

The coalition’s years of advocacy have resulted in a number of wins. In 2016 California invested in providing full-scope Medi-Cal to all low-income children, regardless of their immigration status. Since then, “Health4All Kids” has resulted in the successful enrollment of over 250,000 undocumented children in life-saving healthcare. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a state budget plan that funded a further expansion of Medi-Cal to include low-income undocumented young adults ages 19-25, which will be effective on January 1, 2020.

However, older undocumented adults—our parents and siblings, friends and neighbors, taxpayers and workers in our economy—remain locked out of comprehensive healthcare, making them the largest population in California with no health insurance. Any effort towards universal coverage, whether in California or nationally, will not be successful until everyone, regardless of status, has access to care.

The #Health4All Campaign continues to champion this cause.
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Screenings
• Downtown Independent Theater, Los Angeles
• Tower Theater, Sacramento
• Queer Film Festival, Eugene
• Seattle Asian American Film Festival
• California Initiative for Health Equity & Action, UC Berkeley San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium
• Cal Poly SLO
• Immigrant Day of Action Community Screening
• UC Irvine
• Workers Unite Film Festival
• Philadelphia Latino Film Festival
• UCLA Labor Center Dream Summer
• Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project
• Blackstar Film Festival
• March on Washington Film Festival
• Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival
• CAAMFest Forward
• An Undocumented Lens Film Series
• Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
• New Orlans Film Festival
• Hawaii International Film Festival

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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Ford Foundation, Golden Globe Foundation, Kolibri Foundation and individual donors.