HR 4844, the Ehlers/Hyde bill, and the politics of economics...

[KansDem]

From the "Things That Make You Go 'Hmmmmm'" file...

REVISED MEDICAID DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENT JEOPARDIZES COVERAGE FOR 1 TO 2 MILLION CITIZENS
By Leighton Ku

The Deficit Reduction Act signed by the President in February contains a new mandate requiring the 50 million U.S. citizens who receive Medicaid coverage, as well as all future citizen applicants for Medicaid, to prove their citizenship by providing documents such as birth certificates or U.S. passports. In January, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an analysis of a nationally representative survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, that found that 3.2 to 4.6 million U.S.-born low-income citizens on Medicaid would face serious problems because they did not have a birth certificate or passport readily available.<1>

Interim final regulations issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 12 make two significant improvements in the new documentation requirement.<2> First, elderly and disabled citizens who are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid or are enrolled in Medicaid because they receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will not be subject to the new requirement. Second, the regulation clarified that states may use computerized matches of state vital records databases to check whether beneficiaries or applicants were born in the United States and therefore are native-born citizens; the earlier guidance appeared to discourage such matching. These improvements, however, do not resolve all the difficulties created by the new requirement.

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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Although this report is about Medicare recipients, it does not bode well for those in the lower economic classes who might not have access to documentation required to vote under HR 4844, and for whom securing such documentation could prove burdensome.

And don't forget, the higher one goes on the economic ladder, the more likely that person will vote Republican...

[Monkeyman]

1. Just wondering here what about SSI kids

[Demeter]

2. Good Old Heny Hyde. I Thought He Was Dead. Must Have Been A Dream