Republican Values

AARP’s Bulletin this month has an article featuring a Choctaw woman with cancer in Oklahoma who just got dumped from medical benefits because she couldn’t prove she is a U.S. citizen. It happened because the Republicans got their panties in a wad about possible illegal immigrants getting medical benefits. Their answer was proof by paperwork. And, apparently, the question was not even a real problem, but something created by the Republicans to stoke the fires of xenophobia they know and love so well.

The rule, which neither CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] nor the Bush administration requested, was adopted by the Republican-dominated Congress in 2005 despite the fact that there was no evidence that undocumented immigrants were falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to get Medicaid.

”This rule was the answer to a problem that really doesn’t exist,” says Donna Cohen Ross, an analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, a nonpartisan research organization.

[...]

”In 2007 we added $1 million to our budget just to handle the cost of this new rule when we had absolutely no indication there was a problem with illegal immigrants getting Medicaid in Kansas,” says Andrew Allison, Kansas Medicaid director and deputy director of the state Health Policy Authority.

[...]

Oklahoma has uncovered no illegal immigrants on its rolls. And Arizona, where immigration is a huge issue, has filed two reports since the rule went into effect, each saying the state uncovered "zero" illegal immigrants among its 1 million Medicaid recipients. Kansas has found one illegal immigrant on its Medicaid rolls.

[...]

A close analysis of six states [...] showed that for every $100 spent to implement the rule, only 14 cents was saved.

In fact, nationwide the rule has added millions of dollars in administrative costs.

In Wisconsin, the legislature and the governor initially authorized $1.8 million "just to deal with this rule," says James Jones, a deputy administrator in the state Department of Health and Family Services. "And we estimate it will continue to cost $800,000 a year."

[...]

In Oklahoma [...] more than 20,000 of its 700,000 Medicaid recipients – almost 13 percent are American Indians – have been dropped from the program, “not because they aren’t citizens, but because they’re having a tough time coming up with the right pieces of paper at the right time,” says Mike Fogarty, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.

Lucky for the Republicans, American Indians, the working poor and children aren’t campaign contributors.

Not so lucky for the state taxpayers who have to foot the bill to carry out the new rules. Much better Kansas should have to pay a million dollars for that than some wetback’s kid should get a broken arm set or something.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.