Stricter Rules Regarding Medicaid Application Leaves Many U.S. Citizens Without Healthcare

Declining rates of Medicaid enrollment in several states can be attributed to stricter guidelines imposed to make it harder for people living here illegally to get healthcare assistance. But in reality the new regulations set up by the government has meant that many who should be receiving this aid are being turned down, denied for not having adequate paperwork to get approved.

Medicaid is a government funded medical program for those who cannot afford health insurance. Generally those who apply and are accepted for Medicaid have included small children and elderly or adults with disabilities. The program expands each year as more money is allocated for services and more and more people fall below the poverty level and are eligible for this type of assistance. However, since stricter rules went in to place, this has not been the case.

Since the new 2006 Deficit Reduction Act, tens of thousands of United States citizens have been denied Medicaid because they lack proper documentation. This includes official birth certificates or passports and drivers licenses which many are unable to get.

What has happened is that Medicaid has dropped in many states and it is because citizens are being denied coverage, not because a huge amount of illegal immigrants have been turned away from health care assistance. The federal law just doesn't seem to be doing what it was intended to. Instead small children who need heart surgery or elderly who cannot afford medical care are being left to deal with the situation on their own. Without medical care when necessary, it ends up costing patients, hospitals even more.

While the idea of the new regulation may be a good one, the resulting actions have done more harm for those of our own country who are in desperate need of healthcare. Woman are going without prenatal care, children are not receiving check-ups because applicants are busy hunting down proper documentation to get the Medicaid process rolling. Children are waiting to be seen for minor conditions until they are severe and require expensive emergency room care and hospitalization. Asthma patients end up suffering greatly as a result of not being able to afford necessary medication.

There needs to be an easier way to prove citizenship for those born and raised in the U.S. but for whatever reason cannot easily obtain an official birth certificate or afford a passport and driver's license. It is understandable that the government does not want to pay for illegal immigrants to obtain healthcare in a country that they are not a citizen of but the new regulations regarding Medicaid has ended up hurting those who need care the most, and are the people who the program was intended to help out.

Robert Pear. "Citizens Who Lack Papers Lose Medicaid" New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/12medicaid.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5059&en=fbd36f7cb70faa30&ex=1174363200&partner=AOL