No,,, Illegal Imigrants can not get Medicaid! (Pt 2)

My interest here is primarily the second statement concerning illegal immigrants; will deal with "the others" mentioned in a later posting.  As to the statement concerning cost, I will readily admit that making a purchase such as health insurance would overwhelm me as it does others.  Hence why I would rely on outside financial advice.

While I do not have a financial planner per se, I do have numerous connections whose advice I highly regard.  A purchase such as this would require much thought and not a willy nilly decision.  As I approach retirement age (haha) I have already started the process of determining the best course of action besides a bullet in the brain.

Sadly from some that I have spoken to, the effort put into maximizing insurance gains was/is very lacking.  Most took the first option offered without any forethought or planning, generally accepting Right Wing talking points as fact.  Hence the above - plain and simple, illegal immigrant do not qualify for Medicaid under the 1996 welfare reform act! (Notice my adversary moved the goal post to "all forms of government assistance" from just Medicaid when slightly pushed on the issue.)

Are there caveats?  Of course!  These are just two statuses I am familiar with. That is not to say there isn't an issue with fraud and improper enrollment of ineligible people, including aliens. But the list of who IS qualified among immigrants is long.

As noted, the one exception is according to Phil Galewitz of Kaiser Health News (via NPR),

,,,a little-known part of the state-federal health insurance program for the poor pays about $2 billion a year for emergency treatment for a group of patients who, according to hospitals, mostly comprise illegal immigrants. Most of it goes to reimburse hospitals for delivering babies for women who show up in their emergency rooms, according to interviews with hospital officials and studies.

The funding — which has been around since the late 1980s and is less than 1 percent of the cost of Medicaid — underscores the political and practical challenges of refusing to cover an entire class of people. Congress approved the program after lawmakers required hospitals to screen and stabilize all emergency patients regardless of their insurance or citizenship status.

From my understanding this "emergency Medicaid" reimburses hospitals when they provide emergency and/or maternity care for people who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid if they were in the US legally. States also have funding.

One addition I would make to this point, EMTALA also requires hospitals to provide emergency health care for anyone who arrives needing it, regardless of immigration status.  Both "emergency Medicaid" and EMTALA predate the ACA.

I second point I mentioned is CHIPRA (2009),

This legislation marked a new era in children's coverage by providing states with significant new funding, new programmatic options, and a range of new incentives for covering children through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). One of the clear goals of the legislation is to support states in developing efficient and effective strategies to identify, enroll, and retain health coverage for uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but are not enrolled. CHIPRA also provided flexibility to states to expand health care coverage to children who need it, and tasked the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) with developing standards by which states can measure the quality of the care that children are receiving.

Please be advised that CHIPRA varies by state and there many nuances, while important, that may be beyond the general scope of the point I intended to make.

The complexity of federal eligibility provisions and states choices in extending or further restricting coverage for immigrants within the federal framework contribute to vast differences in the ease of access to and participation in public benefits of immigrants across the United States,,,

One such point being the coverage allotted to prenatal woman.  From my understanding it would fall under the "CHIP unborn child option".  I am not aware of how long postpartum care would extend to the mother.  This scenario would be one of those caveats.

As I noted CHIPRA is for the child, not the entire family and the first qualifier is income; without the Medicaid expansion it is generally set at poverty level.  Expansion's set point is 133%.

http://familiesusa.org/product/federal-poverty-guidelines

And FYI::  prior to my stroke and expansion of Medicaid, I made just over poverty level (about $12,300).  I didn't qualify.  Currently I make around $9K.  BUT,,, if the current health bill goes through, with the slashing of Medicaid over four years, I am in jeopardy.  The cutting of Medicaid funding would force states to slash income eligibility.  Granted there are many "if" scenarios in my case that I may wiggle through, it is too close for comfort.

Other factors taken into account include household size, family status, disability, age, utilities costs, rent/mortgage, etc.  Everything has to be documented.  No one walks into DPW and walks out with benefits.  It is a process that takes about 30-days and in some cases a PITA.  In my case a PITA but one that saved my life.

So again, illegal immigrants can not get Medicaide! As to "people who refuse too work", they are under the same guidelines.  More on that in a later post.