Sunday, August 06, 2006
Mandate endangers children's health
From the RoundTable blog
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Rhonda Seltz
Seltz is coordinator of Radford University's Family Medical Insurance Security outreach project
As part of the federal deficit reduction act, beginning July 1, all Medicaid applicants both new and renewals, were required to present proof of citizenship. I do not want any of our community's children to lose their health coverage just because they cannot come up with proof of citizenship.
Over the last six years, we've successfully enrolled hundreds of children in Medicaid (FAMIS Plus) and Family Medical Insurance Security, Virginia's state child health insurance program. Our president, with a mere stroke of a pen, is jeopardizing the health and lives of thousands of Medicaid-eligible children.
I can only guess that the reasoning behind this is to make sure that illegal children are not using taxpayer money for their health care.
It is extremely difficult to get noncitizens to come anywhere near a government program because of the mistrust and concerns about deportation. Even when the children are eligible after being born in the United States or have a permanent resident card for five years, they are very difficult to enroll because of that fear.
Actually these eligible children are probably easier to document because they have the required proof of legal status. It is the U.S. citizen children who will require a great deal of time, effort and resources to meet the new federal requirement.
It makes absolutely no fiscal sense to have to utilize so many resources to be able to weed out a handful, if that many, of non-eligible children. Quite the contrary, it is U.S. citizen children who will be losing their health coverage when parents are unable or unwilling to go through the hassle of getting original birth certificates, taking time off from their jobs to hand deliver the original to the eligibility worker and then making arrangements to have photo IDs made for their children.
After doing hundreds of Medicaid applications, I can honestly say that I have never had concerns about families faking citizenship to get Medicaid. Although the application process is simpler than in years past, income verification and other requirements allow eligibility workers the opportunity to spot red flags so they can follow up to verify citizenship if needed.
Eligibility workers at our local Social Services departments who are already overworked and underappreciated, have a heavier workload with added responsibilities and no extra resources for the additional time it will take them to assist families in meeting this federal mandate. Of course families are going to be frustrated and angry and blame their local DSS worker who had nothing to do with the new rules.
We are very fortunate to have many excellent eligibility workers in our region, and one local DSS has already begun a process of getting a local fire department to do photo IDs for children. It is just unfortunate that families have to go through such a hassle to simply get health care for their children.
Families can call our FAMIS outreach project at (866) 902-6747 for additional help. Local community agencies, including New River Community Action Head Start and CHIP along with local Social Services departments can help make sure that eligible children receive Medicaid coverage and that they stay covered. Don't let a stroke of a pen take away your children's right to have access to health care.
