As an undergraduate studying cellular biology at the Johns Hopkins University, Ria Arora also volunteered at a pediatric clinic serving Spanish-speaking families. After graduation, the San Francisco-area native worked at a nonprofit community health clinic in Washington, D.C. that was dedicated to serving the Latino community. Among her duties was helping immigrants lacking permanent legal status access community-based resources, including health insurance.

“I saw how important health insurance could be to immigrant families,” she says.

Arora knew that Maryland offered no such benefit, and when she returned to Johns Hopkins to start medical school, she was determined to make sure the state’s immigrant community had the same access to health insurance as Washington’s. During the 2023 legislative session, she testified on behalf of a bill allowing immigrants to buy insurance on Maryland’s health exchange, the online portal where government and private insurers offer individual and family health care plans.

When that bill failed, the first-year med student rallied behind its 2024 version, co-sponsored by state senator and Johns Hopkins physician Clarence Lam. Coordinating with other legislative efforts and student groups on campus, Arora rounded up medical and public health students from both Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland to offer written testimony in support of the Access to Care Act.

She expressed their determination in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee:

“Although Maryland has taken bold steps to decrease the uninsured rate, a staggering 30% of the uninsured are denied healthcare coverage solely because of their immigration status. This systematic and structural inability to access routine, comprehensive, affordable care has led uninsured Marylanders to seek out the most expensive type of care there is: emergency departments.

“As future physicians, public health professionals, and healthcare workers of Maryland, we support this bill because we would like to practice in a world where patients do not have to sacrifice their right to healthcare to maintain basic life necessities.”

The letter had 119 cosigners, 86 of whom are Johns Hopkins medical students. The statement featured 30 written testimonies from medical students sharing their own experiences witnessing or experiencing the lack of access to healthcare. One student wrote her family needed to delay medical services: “As an immigrant, I understand the fear and insecurity that immigrants feel when dealing with healthcare costs. For my family, this fear led to us delaying medical care for my diabetic father, delaying necessary surgeries for myself, and spending years without an annual physical.”

Another student wrote about struggles regarding medical necessities in the midst of a pandemic: “I worked at a COVID testing site where I would meet cars full of immigrant families plagued with the fear of being denied a COVID test during a pandemic because they were uninsured. They waited in line for hours and when I assured them that testing was free, I would see the relief and gratitude in their eyes.” In addition, Arora and 10 other med students testified in support of the bill before the Maryland Senate Finance Committee.

By the end of the legislative session, the Immigrant Healthcare Expansion Bill had passed in both the Maryland Senate and the House of Delegates. Governor Wes Moore signed the legislation into law May 16. Maryland will join Washington, D.C., and such states as California, Illinois and Massachusetts in expanding access to health insurance, no matter the applicant’s immigration status. The new law will take effect Oct. 24 of this year.

Katherine Chretien, associate dean for medical student affairs, commended Arora for her “true leadership” in organizing the med student campaign to change Maryland law.

“While we do our best to teach our medical students the value of advocacy and to promote health equity as a part of physician professionalism, some things are best learned outside of the classroom and in the community,” she says. “Ria represents the best of this — engaging in our community for effecting positive change.”

Roy Ziegelstein, professor of medicine and vice dean for education, says Arora is a great example of the kind of physician Johns Hopkins hopes to train.

“Ria’s efforts represent exactly the type of activity — and exactly the type of future physician — we are trying to develop in this school — a healer and leader who will leave their mark in a positive way on the profession and on the world.”

Reflecting on her advocacy, Arora says “passing this bill is a step forward, but not total victory for health equity in Maryland. We have a long way to go in uplifting our undocumented community.” She also credits her experience in the clinic in Washington with helping to shape her decision to become a physician.

“I learned that, while maybe I can’t solve all of a patient’s problems, I can be consistent, show up for them and help empower them to take control of their own health,” she says. “That’s how I want to pursue medicine.”