According to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the new Medicaid proof-of-citizenship law is having unintended consequences.
Last year, Congress passed a law requiring Medicaid beneficiaries and applicants to prove U.S. citizenship before receiving care. The law was intended to curb fraud in the Medicaid program and prevent illegal aliens, who are not legally authorized to be in the country, from receiving care through the program. But according to the report, U.S. citizens are the ones most negatively affected by the new law.
The measure requires Medicare beneficiaries and applicants to present birth certificates, passports, or other forms of identification, but in many cases, administrative red tape has caused delays in obtaining ID.
In “New Medicaid Citizenship Documentation Requirement Is Taking A Toll,†(PDF) the CBPP examined Medicaid programs in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and found that between 18,000 and 20,000 Kansas residents eligible for Medicaid lost coverage after the law. Iowa had the largest coverage decline.
The new requirement also appears to be reversing part of the progress that states made over the past decade in streamlining access to Medicaid for individuals who qualify, and especially for children. For example, to improve access to Medicaid and reduce administrative costs, most states implemented mail-in application procedures, and many states reduced burdensome documentation requirements. The new Medicaid citizenship documentation requirement now appears to be pushing states in the opposite direction, by impeding access to Medicaid.
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