Here is an overlooked fact. Despite the increased access to affordable health care provided by Obamacare, immigrant women continue to face multiple hurdles accessing even basic health care services. Some of these obstacles existed before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and some were added  after, but all must be removed -- even in the current anti-immigrant political climate -- if Congress is sincere about making ours a healthy and productive society and economy.

The barriers to affordable health care that immigrant women face are real; I have seen them firsthand and they have permanently affected me.

I remember when I first found out I would be unable to have children. My doctor said, “if only” I had only gotten my obviously out-of-the-ordinary menstrual cycle and ovarian pain checked out early, then treatment would have been more effective.  This was both sad and maddening. Yes, my family and I were aware that something wrong since I was 12, but how could I possibly ask to see a doctor when we had a hard enough time putting food on the table and paying the bills. The extra cost of seeing a gynecologist was out of the question.

Sadly, millions of other families face similarly difficult choices. Out of the estimated 6 million undocumented Latinas, 2 million live in poverty. As recently as 2011, 45% of all Latina immigrants were uninsured.

More broadly, non-citizens (undocumented and lawfully present immigrants) are three times as likely as U.S.-born citizens to be uninsured. This means that non-citizen children and citizen children with non-citizen parents or in mixed-status families -- 6 million children in 2011 -- are also at a higher risk of being uninsured.

In some cases, immigrants are explicitly left out of programs offering access to affordable health care. For example, young people granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are specifically excluded from the benefits of Obamacare, and there is a 5-year waiting period for Medicaid for many green card holders. In many states, absolutely no access to preventive and prenatal health care is available to undocumented Latinas, even though diabetes and cervical cancer risks are higher for this group.

A friend of mine (undocumented, ineligible for DACA and single mother of two), is part of this bleak reality. She earns around $13,700 a year—an amount far below what is needed for food, shelter, and clothes, let alone health care. Indeed, immigrant Latinas face financial, legal, and language barriers to any type of health coverage.

Still, I do have hope that access to health services for immigrants like friend, as well as for my family and I, will change soon.

Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and 65 original cosponsors recently introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA), a bill that would eliminate barriers to health care for many Latina and immigrant women. HEAA seeks to apply federal resources to help eliminate health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities and close the gaps in the ACA.

The bill’s basic principle is that immigration status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and English proficiency should not be additional barriers to accessing to health care. HEAA calls for culturally and linguistically appropriate health care, access to mental health services, and preventive care for women, children, and families.

HEAA seeks to address the current health care gaps that keep Latinas and other women of color from being insured. This issue must be addressed by Congress immediately, so that women are spared health crises like the one I faced.

*Genesis Garfio is a 2014 First Generation Civil Rights Fellow with the National Immigration Law Center and a student at Columbia University. Her family came to the U.S. from Mexico 11 years ago and now resides in Texas.