Enrollment in Medicaid Takes a Rare Dip

[spotbird]

Source: AP

Medicaid directors attributed the 0.5 percent enrollment decline to a solid economy and to new documentation checks that require beneficiaries to prove their citizenship or that they are qualified legal immigrants.

......

Andrew Allison, the Medicaid director for Kansas, said the documentation requirements led to an enrollment decline of about 20,000 children in his state. He said the requirements had the largest impact on black children.

"It was a tremendous administrative burden on us, and it was certainly a burden on consumers," Allison said.

At the same time, directors said they believe the new documentation requirements had little affect on the number of illegal immigrants in Medicaid.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jR3uRii74frMnSGxSqqTNBXDiKxwD8S6LC381

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ID requirements to vote will have a similar impact on the poor.

[underpants]

1. Social Security number required for Medicaid

so if you are receiving it you probably paid into it.

[spotbird]

2. Aparently that isn't enough anymore

This sounds like the same issue as id to vote, the real reason is to limit participation.

[Vinca]

3. Since I have no insurance I checked out Medicaid one time and

the income limits are so low it's impossible to see how anyone could exist making so little money. You can be poor and still be too well off for Medicaid.

[murielm99]

7. Yes.

When I was first married, my husband broke his leg. It was a nasty compound fracture with danger of infection. He was in one cast or another for six months. Even after that, it took him a long time to walk properly.

I had to care for him and my daughter, who was a baby. Even if there had been work around here, I don't know who would have cared for my family.

He had unemployment, but it took forever to kick in. His workmen's comp did pay the medical bills, but they made that into a nightmare too, with constant mistakes.

I can't remember the amount of money we were expected to live on, but it was very small. I went to various agencies to see if we could get help, but they told us we had too much income. I was hoping we qualified for food stamps, or some help providing food for my daughter. We owned a house, too. Believe me, getting the house payment made during that time was a challenge.

After everything was over, he did get a settlement that helped us catch up on bills. It did not make us rich. In fact, it took over a year to get things back to normal financially. My phone was nearly cut off a couple of times. I always paid the other utilities just after we got a cutoff notice. I canceled every credit card.

When everything was done, the IRS audited us. Our tax return was flagged, because they did not think anyone could live on such a small amount of money. They thought we were underreporting our income.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. And how many African-American kids in poverty are illegal immigrants?

The law about presenting birth certificates unfairly burdens the poor who may not have the money to pay to have an official copy of their birth certificate created and sent to their home wherever it happens to be. If you have zero dollars, you have zero dollars, and no county court house will waive the birth certificate fee.

If the feds are going to require this documentation for Medicaid, then the feds should be responsible for obtaining the birth certificates at the federal government's expense, at least for children under 18. The whole point of Medicaid is being poor. Poor taxes are unfair.

[underpants]

6. Poverty doesn't see color

there are tons of poor whites in the same situation.

I know that we are basically brainwashed to think that only blacks are poor (take two seconds to think about why that is) but there are a hell of a lot of poor whites and browns and even some yellows out there too.

[murielm99]

8. A social worker here told me that

statewide, a higher percentage of the African-American population is poor enough to receive assistance.

Even though a smaller percentage of the Caucasian population is on assistance, the number of Caucasians who receive assistance is much higher.

[underpants]

9. As noted above

the level of LACK of income necessary to receive "assistance" is a astounding

$540 of monthly income for the household per month here in Richmond Va.... I spend that on fricking lunch in a month ( or close to it)

You can't have NET WORTH of more than $2,000 for one program ("Welfare" I think it was) that includes the car, bank account, and of course no owning a home.

There are a LOT of really really poor people out there.

50% of the population makes $50K a year or less-that is for the entire household.

[Robbien]

5. The new requirements are just bogging down the paper shuffling

thereby fewer people can get processed, thus lower enrollment.

Simple.

But of course the article contributes the lower enrollment to Bush's booming economy, and if not that then the blame goes to "those darn immigrants".

[spotbird]

10. That's not what it says

"Three-quarters of states singled out the documentation requirements as contributing to lower Medicaid enrollment. Forty-five states said the requirements increased administrative costs because they had to train workers and set up computer systems to check the validity of the records that beneficiaries presented."

A spokesman for the administration does try to spin it that way:

"A federal Medicaid official disputed the finding that the new documentation requirements led to an enrollment decline over the past year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services actually noted an enrollment decline before the documentation requirements kicked in, and attributed it to a strong economy."

But the thesis of the article is clear and dismissive of the "official" lie.

[Bleacher Creature]

11. At least Bush can genuinely use the "Mission Accomplished" line now.

Because making access to health care to the poor more difficult is not an unintended consequence of the documentation requirements, regardless of the smoke they're blowing about illegal immigrants.