Immigration activists seek quicker access to Medicaid

[ilbegone]

Immigration activists seek quicker access to Medicaid

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer

12/25/2009

Immigrants rights groups are seeking to change federal law so that legal immigrants won't have to wait five years before becoming eligible for Medicaid.

Critics say such a change could make the U.S. a magnet for infirm immigrants.

Provisions eliminating the five-year waiting period didn't make it into the final versions of the House or Senate healthcare bills, but that could change when the two chambers combine their bills in the coming weeks.

Isabel Alegria, a spokeswoman for the California Immigrant Policy Center, said there's no good rationale for leaving legal immigrants without Medicaid, a federally funded program that is administered by individual states.

"These are lawful residents who pay into the system and should be able to take advantage of it if they come into hard times," she said.

But Raymond Herrera, a local opponent of illegal immigration, said it's a bad idea.

"If a legal immigrant comes here and, after a few years is in need of medical attention, they should be sent back to their country of origin," he said. "They should be treated, and once they're stabilized, then they should be sent back."

He said immigrants who come to the U.S. and immidately need medical attention they cannot afford are burdens on the country's social safety net.

"The American taxpayer should not be burdened with other countries' medical problems," he said.

In California, legal immigrants are immediately eligible for Medicaid - called Medi-Cal in California - but the state has to pay out of its own coffers for Medi-Cal recipients who do not meet the federal requirement.

Alegria said that applies to about 65,000 people.

"That's about 1 percent of the current Medi-Cal caseload," she said. "It's not a very large group of people. If this were passed, basically, California would get federal dollars to fund their care, which we're paying for anyway."

With the healthcare bill moving past the Senate Thursday and on toward the conference committee, local lawmakers took surprising stances on the waiting period.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, who has been a strong proponent of immigration reform, said he doesn't want to remove the five-year waiting period.

"That's the price people pay to become legal citizens," he said.

Baca, though, said he wants any changes to Medicaid eligibility for immigrants to be coordinated with other changes being sought in the newly introduced immigration reform bill.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who voted against the House version of the healthcare bill and likely won't vote for whatever comes out of the conference committee, seemed open to the idea of removing the waiting period.

"I'm not supportive of putting restrictions on people who are here legally," he said. "The law ought to apply to all people who are citizens and who are here legally."