Health care providers feared SB81 would curtail vital health services to immigrants. Turns out, the reform bill passed in 2008 will have little impact.

The attorney general's office has identified just two state health-related benefits that will be limited to citizens and legal residents starting July 1: Child-care and emergency medical-services licenses. Adults applying to become paramedics or to open a child care center must sign an affidavit saying they live in Utah legally, said Assistant Attorney General Doug Springmeyer.

But state and local health departments can continue to offer cancer screenings, prenatal advice, nutritional programs and fund doctor and dentist visits without asking about patients' immigration status, said Springmeyer, who represents the state Health Department.

On Thursday, he stressed SB81 doesn't affect diagnosis or treatment of communicable diseases and other emergencies -- including the H1N1 swine flu virus.

"One of the messages public health wants to make sure is well-known in the community is they should feel free to come and seek that kind of care without any fear their citizenship status will have any bearing whatsoever," he said.

That also means the anti-viral medications the state has stockpiled for the flu would be available to undocumented residents, he said.

There were fears among people who serve immigrants that the new law would limit far more programs. The Health Department had told agencies that accept primary-care grants that they would have to verify their patients' legal status.

That was wrong advice, Springmeyer said. The law only applies to state and local agencies, not their grantees.

"It's great news," said Judy Sobin, executive director of The People's Health Clinic in Park City. It uses some state money to provide health care to uninsured adults working in the construction, restaurant and lodging industries in Summit and Wasatch counties; some of whom are likely undocumented.

"We're going to try to get the word out to our community they should feel very comfortable coming in for health care," she said.

Health officials also worried the law would apply to the federally funded Women Infant and Children's program, which provides food vouchers and nutritional counseling to 72,000 clients, including pregnant and breast-feeding women and children up to age 5.

Springmeyer said that program, along with other "population-based public health programs," including breast and cervical cancer screens, Baby Your Baby and tobacco control programs, are exempt from SB81 based on federal guidance.

Nor does the law affect birth certificates. For example, parents who are undocumented can continue to request certificates for their children born in Utah. The state will not ask those parents if they are here legally, Springmeyer said. But he noted that under federal law, applicants for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program must be citizens, and that will continue under SB81.

hmay@sltrib.com