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Citizens without essential documents not fit for Medicaid

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Rhiannon M. Noth, was denied Medicaid for heart surgery for her 3-year-old son Landen, just because she couldn’t obtain the necessary documents. Thanks to 2006 federal law, the Deficit Reduction Act., under which people who say they are United States citizens and want Medicaid must provide ‘satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship’, which could include a passport or the combination of a birth certificate and a driver’s license.

Unfortunately, 3-year-old Landen is not the only victim of this new act but several other patients are also wriggling under it. The following words of Kevin W. Concannon, director of the Department of Human Services in Iowa, provide with much better understanding of this situation:

The largest adverse effect of this policy has been on people who are American citizens.

How badly people have been affected due to this new law could be cited from the following figures:-

1. In Iowa, the number of Medicaid recipients has dropped by 5,700 in the second half of 2006, to 92,880, after rising for five years.

2. In Florida, the number of children on Medicaid declined by 63,000, to 1.2 million, from July 2006 to January of this year.

3. In Ohio due to document requirement, the number of children and parents on Medicaid has declined by 39,000 to 1.3 million.

However, officials are not ready to associate this fall in Medicaid recipients with this new Act, despite the fact that abovementioned figures tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

No doubt, aim behind the imposition of this law was to curb illegal immigration but directly or indirectly this law is hurting U.S. citizens too, who are eligible to avail Medicaid. I strongly, believe that Medicaid is quite essential for a person; no matter he/she is legal immigrant or illegal. Therefore, some other options for cracking down on illegal immigrants should be searched out so that people’s right of hassle free Medicaid could be preserved.

Via: NY Times

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