By Kenneth J. Theisen, 11/3/06
On November 2, 2006 the Bush regime announced that children born to low-income undocumented immigrants will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through the federal program known as Medicaid. Apparently the Bush regime has expanded its attacks on immigrants to their U.S. citizen children. The result will be increased infant mortality and reduced health care for babies.
This policy change by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) will hurt our nation’s youngest citizens. Infants born to
pregnant women on Medicaid are automatically eligible for Medicaid for
one year if the infant stays with the mother. But under the new
announced policy, undocumented parents of newborns will now have to
apply for Medicaid and prove that their newborns are citizens under the
new citizenship documentation policy. This is part of a broader attack
on immigrants which began on July 1st this year. At that time CMS
started to require proof of citizenship for all Medicaid applicants.
This has resulted in delays in medical treatment for tens of thousands.
Until this November 2nd policy change, CMS had required states to
provide a full year of automatic newborn eligibility to infants born to
pregnant women eligible for Emergency Medicaid, to the same extent as
infants born to mothers eligible for other Medicaid coverage. Several
states have indicated they will comply with the new policy by denying
eligibility to infants born to women receiving Emergency Medicaid until
they apply and prove their citizenship.
This policy change is not only immoral and deadly, but it will cost
the health care system more in the long term. Much of the care that
will be denied is preventive care in the form of well-baby visits that
are needed soon after newborns leave the hospital. Preventive care
saves money for states that provide Medicaid coverage and the federal
government that helps pay for it. In addition, some infants require
immediate post-delivery care for conditions or illnesses detected
immediately after birth. Physicians and hospitals, already receiving
limited payments under the Medicaid program, will be discouraged from
providing vital care for these children. Hospitals and other providers
that continue to serve the affected infants will experience delays, if
not losses, in Medicaid payment.
Under the law these children affected by the policy are citizens
born in U.S. hospitals whose births are already paid for by state
Medicaid programs. Parents that comply with the new rules and apply for
Medicaid coverage for their children will experience delays in
coverage, pending completion of the Medicaid application. But many
will be deterred from applying for fear of deportation and separation
from their children. This appears to be the intent of the regulation –
to discourage immigrants from using such services even when they are
entitled to do so.
This latest attack is not happening in a vacuum. For the last
several years the xenophobic right-wing has urged a government
crackdown on “anchor babies.” This is their derogatory term for U.S.
citizen children born to undocumented immigrants. These reactionaries
have urged a change in the law which deems anyone born on U.S. soil to
be a citizen of the U.S. They have lobbied for laws that prevent
medical care for immigrants and their children, even citizen children.
With this recent change they have been successful.
By attacking babies and implementing regulations that will lead to
their death, the Bush regime has shown that no action is too low for
it. How many babies will die or be hurt before we drive this regime
from power?