New Anti-Immigrant Law Chasing "Nonexistent Problem" is Dropping Millions of U.S. Citizens from Medicaid Coverage

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

A new provision requiring Medicaid applicants to provide "satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship or nationality" may prevent coverage for many of the U.S. citizens who need it the most, according to a letter sent to the General Accountability Office (GAO) by senior House Democrats John Dingell and Henry Waxman.

Applicants must now submit original documents like birth certificates or passports, which millions of low-income citizens do not have, or certified copies, which can incur significant effort, costs, and delays.

The mandate is part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, the same law signed by President Bush even though he knew it had not been signed by the House of Representatives, an obviously unconstitutional action recently upheld by a Bush-appointed federal judge.

The letter cites multiple government sources to show that there is not a problem of illegal immigrants improperly receiving Medicaid, yet estimates suggest that agencies and recipients will have to spend a whopping 5,150 years of work hours just to rectify those currently on Medicaid with the new law. "These figures raise serious questions about whether the new requirements can meet a basic cost-benefit test," the letter says. "We may be wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and denying health coverage to large numbers of eligible beneficiaries in order to chase a nonexistent problem."

Meanwhile, 40,000 Georgia residents have been dropped from coverage in just the first few months of the policy, already more than the Congressional Budget Office's estimate that only 35,000 Americans nationwide would be dropped after ten years of implementation. A new study has found that between 3.2 and 4.6 million U.S. born citizens could inappropriately lose Medicaid coverage.

"States are allowed little flexibility for millions of children, adults, and disabled persons, regardless of degree of illness or circumstances," Dingell and Waxman wrote. "For instance, survivors of natural disasters who have lost everything will not qualify for even temporary benefits while searching for original documentation. Children in foster care will still be forced to produce original documentation, though their citizenship status has already been verified by states in order to be eligible for foster care."

The letter requests further GAO investigation into the effects of the law on costs and denied coverage.

Click here to read the letter (pdf)

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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