300,000 people + no birth certificate = no Medicaid

[dragonlady]

On the NPR newscast today I heard that 300,000 people can't get approved or re-enrolled for Medicaid because although they would be eligible they don't have birth certificates to prove that they're citizens. This comes about because of a law passed last year that restricts Medicaid to citizens (more below about that).

A disturbing thought: This proves that a lot of people can't come up with a birth certificate even when their health care and perhaps their life is at stake. If the Real ID with its document requirements isn't repealed by next year, how many people won't get a driver's license and will fall into the spiral of fines for driving without one and then jail and job loss? And how many then won't have the photo ID that Republicans keep pushing in order to prevent "voter fraud"? Their argument is that bringing in a photo ID is simple ("you need one to rent a movie") so what's the big deal? The 300,000 people who can't qualify for basic health care from their government show that things aren't always as simple as they seem.

Back to the Medicaid problem: This law, part of the Deficit Reduction Act signed February 8, 2006, is another monstrosity created by the Republican-controlled Congress and affects 50 million people. Here are some choice tidbits from a report written at the time:

Once they took effect on July 1, 2006, these new requirements would apply to all applications or redeterminations of eligibility that occurred after that date, without any exceptions even for people who are extremely old or have severe physical or mental impairments, such as Alzheimer’s disease. In the following six to twelve months after July 1, 2006, states would have to check citizenship documents for more than 50 million beneficiaries. This would constitute a significant new administrative burden for state and local agencies. ...

Birth certificates may have been lost over the years in which people move from one home to another; in some cases, as explained below, individuals may have been born outside a hospital and no birth certificate may have been issued. Those who may be harmed include:
People who have a sudden emergency and need Medicaid coverage immediately but cannot get these documents quickly (some states take a month or longer to provide a duplicate birth certificate when one is requested);
Those who are homeless, mentally ill, or suffering from senility or a disease such as Alzheimer’s, and who may not be able to secure a birth certificate (or even to recall where they were born);
People who are in nursing homes or are severely disabled, and would have difficulty getting access to their birth certificates; and
Those affected by disasters like Hurricanes Katrina or Wilma who have lost most of their possessions and records....

In some cases, people may have never been issued a birth certificate because they were born at home and their birth was not officially registered. A particular problem exists for a large number of elderly African Americans because they were born in a time when racial discrimination in hospital admissions, especially in the South, as well as poverty, kept their mothers from giving birth at a hospital. One study estimated that about one in five African Americans born in the 1939-40 period lack a birth certificate because of these problems. ... Thus, this new provision would exacerbate a historical legacy of discrimination and could lead to a large number of elderly African Americans losing access to health care.

http://www.cbpp.org/1-5-06health.htm

This sounds bad, but hey, we have to reduce the deficit some way, right?

[havocmom]

1. Willing to bet it is people without a lot of $$ too

Next up... voting?

[aquart]

2. Dead Americans is not a problem for BushCo.

We already know that.

[Traveling_Home]

3. Superficial

If you are actually having problems and need some strategies on this issue call Nola at the Atlantis Community in Denver or call ADAPT Denver and ask for her. There have been a whole series of articles in the Denver Post of solutions and struggles that she has assisted with successfully.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. once upon a time

my mom had to get a birth certificate for my "#2 grandmother" who was a family friend. She was born in Indian Territory, in 1901, before it was Oklahoma. She was one of 11 children born in a sod house. Mom said she went thru absolute hell getting the woman a birth certificate.

[JimDandy]

5. A small correction here...

"Those who may be harmed include: People who have a sudden emergency and need Medicaid coverage immediately but cannot get these documents quickly (some states take a month or longer to provide a duplicate birth certificate when one is requested)"

Medicaid benefits are BACKDATED. So, say you have applied for Medicaid, but you're waiting on documents in order to be approved and you have an emergency. First of all, the hospital MUST treat you, if it's an emergency. Secondly, hospitals know that Medicaid not only pays for health care costs incurred while the applicant was waiting for approval, but it also pays for bills incurred up to three months prior to application. So hospitals are happy to treat someone who is waiting for Medicaid approval, as opposed to, for example, an illegal alien who is not eligible for Medicaid, but who they must treat anyway, even if they know they'll never receive payment for their services.

[dragonlady]

8. That's very helpful

to people who need care immediately, and thanks for pointing it out. But in the long run, if they just plain will never have a birth certificate, what happens then? I don't know. They might not get any routine care. And the political side of the question remains: voting is not an emergency care situation, so no ID = no vote.

[hyphenate]

12. Been there, done that

In 99, I was left without insurance, two heart attacks, diabetes and several other illnesses. I pretty much had to be my own doctor for the better part of 4 entire years and do what was necessary to stay alive. I got insulin from my mother to handle the diabetes; I finally got a doctor on one of my trips to the ER to give me prescriptions for my heart meds where I could only afford the generics (which were fine, BTW); and I had to live without the other medicines.

I went to apply for Medi-Cal, and was told I wasn't disabled (which was complete bullshit), and was turned down. When I told the case worker that if I were living back home in Massachusetts, she said they would buy me a one-way ticket back to Massachusetts if I wanted it. How snide can you get, huh?

Unless you're at the bottom, believe me, you can't and won't understand (not you personally, but the collective "you").

More people go without medical help across this country on a daily basis, than can ever be noted. But it's not the poorest who suffer--they usually have Medi-caid and Medi-Cal to pay their bills. It's those who are the working poor--not enough pay for insurance, but too much to get benefits.

If people can't prove their citizenship, they need an advocate, and most states have advocates to assist those who are at dead-ends. It's not a complete "go-it-alone" type scenario.

[JimDandy]

14. All are definitely problems! n/t

[bobbolink]

16. have you actually BEEN in that situation, and gone for medical care?

You might want to try it out sometime.....

[JimDandy]

25. I advocate for

people who encounter problems such as this with administrative agencies and occasionally during administrative hearings. If you have been approved for Medicaid, but were denied backdated benefits, even though you believe you were income eligible, I'd suggest contacting Legal Aid in your area for assistance! If you live in Utah, pm me about your problem and I'll see what I can do to help.

[drm604]

6. K&R

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

7. Thank you for posting this; perhaps it might inspire people to DO SOMETHING about it...

Perhaps contact their Senators & Representatives?


Senators of the 110th Congress: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


Representative Offices: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml


HERE IS A LIST OF TOLL FREE CAPITOL HILL SWITCHBOARD NUMBERS:

1 (800) 828 - 0498

1 (800) 459 - 1887

1 (800) 614 - 2803

1 (866) 340 - 9281

1 (866) 338 - 1015

1 (877) 851 - 6437

Or they might remain silent... indifferent...

The Perils of Indifference
Elie Wiesel

~ excerpt ~

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.

And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.

If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once.

The full speech (text & audio) is available @ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

[Sapphire Blue]

23. Kicking ^^^ for *** doing something***

:kick:

[Solon]

9. I wonder if this would affect my grandmother...

I've seen her birth certificate, problem is that her legal name doesn't match the one on the certificate.

[bobbolink]

17. ABSOLUTELY!! See my post #15!!

PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF THIS!

YET, WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?

WHERE'S THAT GOOD OLD LIBERAL ACTION?????

[Rosemary2205]

10. There's a way around this and not that difficult

The social workers helping at risk people apply know there quite a few other documents that can be used to prove citizenship for citizens who never had a birth certificate. In fact the government specifically set up a system for obtaining a Citizenship ID card that does not require a birth certificate in conjuction with the deficit reduction act.

The medicaid website spells it all out.

[hyphenate]

11. This could be a major obstacle, but.....

there are still ways to get around the situation.

Nowadays, there is a law that precludes hospital emergency rooms from rejecting any patient regardless of ability to pay. Most hospitals have funds to allow for such circumstances. Once a patient is stabilized, however, the hospital can release them.

In order to get my driver's license back, I needed my social security card, and couldn't find it. The guy at the DMV told me to go to the SS office, and they could issue me a note on letterhead to give to the DMV to prove my SS#. I eventually found my card, but this is a workaround that can be used for this one document.

As far as birth certificates are concerned, all birth records are usually archived in a central department at a state capital. For a certified copy, there is a fee (here in Massachusetts, it's $12) for the document, but that isn't a whole lot in the long run. This is also available online, for people who are unable to get to the records department. If someone complains that they can't get a copy of their birth certificate and uses the excuse that they don't have a computer or are unable to get to the records otherwise, I say, tough! Most elderly folks have a caregiver who can do the work for them online, and if there is no computer at home, every library has computers for internet use.

I agree that there are some people who would be disadvantaged because of this law, but I personally believe that there needs to be some point where we need to stop and let people assume responsibility over their own lives. Sure, we could keep handing people everything without some kind of effort, but giving them a free ride, rather than giving them incentive to do something for themselves, isn't the answer. I've been to the bottom, and I agree that some people fall through the cracks, but I also see where there is too much handed out and not enough of an effort to help without trapping people in dead-end circumstances. After 18 in a normal family, the parents must give their children wings to fly from the nest, and so, too, our government needs to get the populace out of living in the basement and out on their own. How adult are we if we insist on being so dependent that we can't find our way out of this trap?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Medical care should be based on need. Not on wealth or the proof of citizenship.

[bobbolink]

15. It's happening to ALL!! That's why it's called "DEFICIT REDUCTION"

Get rid of all us bums, that's the ticket!

I was caught in this last summer. My Social Security was cut off, and they DEMANDED an ORIGINAL of my MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE!! I was without ANY $$$$$ for 4 months! I had NO MONEY for groceries, transportation, shelter, ANYTHING.

I had gone 3 days without eating, and had planned to off myself the next day, as there was NOTHING I could do about ANY of this. Someone who didn't want to, at the last minute took me in, or I would have been gone. NOTHING I COULD DO.

I talked about it here on DU---NO RESPONSE.

It isn't SEXY.

It's not as COOL as stopping the Wwwwaaaarrrrrrr.

Then people wonder why I have NO HOPE in Dems.

Start giving a shit, people.

It's your OWN CITIZENS who are DYING, and you act like it's NOTHING.

How many of those 100's of thousands have killed themselves now, because they had NO WAY TO SURVIVE???

DOES IT MATTER TO ANYONE????

HELLO OUT THERE-------------

[REP]

18. At Least They Told You Why

My checks have been stopped until September. I received the letter saying the payments would stop for six months, and when I called and asked why, nobody knew. I asked if it was usual to take an entire check, and they said no it wasn't. I filed appeal after appeal, and no answer ... and no checks.

[bobbolink]

19. Thanks for your concern.

:eyes:

[REP]

28. Thank You For Yours

We're in the same boat, only you know why your checks are being withheld and what to do about it. The SSA doesn't know why it is withholding my checks, making it very hard to do anything to get them back. I won't get another check until September. That's a long way a way.

[JimDandy]

26. That's simply horrible!

Point me to your old post about this. How are you doing now?

[bobbolink]

20. hoping in vain for more concern for this issue!

How 'bout keeping this boosted?

THANKS!

[Sapphire Blue]

21. ..

:kick:

[bobbolink]

24. Poverty is, INDEED, the most dangerous WMD! You're always on target, Sapphire Blue!

For so many years, liberals were upset because no count available for how many Iraquis dead and injured by our hand.

Yet, here are this many thousands of people, clearly many of whom will DIE because of this, no tally taken, and.....

......

.............

crickets.


AGain I ask.....

WHAT THE HELL WILL IT TAKE?????

[bdamomma]

22. this is getting to be a full assault on Americans by these murderers

in the WH, how much more???

[bobbolink]

27. How many more? As many as the 'Murkin people will accept and tolerate.

As you can see from the small number of replies to this thread, most people really don't give a flying fuck.