Biden administration, states widen doorway for illegal aliens to Medicaid, hospitals
New form of “catch and release" will burden Medicaid, hospital system
Angel mom Laura Wilkerson discusses her son's death caused by an illegal migrant on 'The Evening Edit.'
Millions of illegal aliens have been given an on-ramp to Medicaid due to actions by the Biden-Harris administration, a new study by the Foundation for Government Accountability says.
It warns the moves will swamp U.S. hospitals and cost taxpayers potentially tens of billions of dollars more annually, on top of the estimated $150 billion yearly in higher taxes. The border crisis, intensified by the Biden administration, is straining both Medicaid and U.S. hospitals to the breaking point, experts warn.
And it's happening because of loopholes, in addition to U.S. states already expanding Medicaid coverage, plus the Biden-Harris White House weakening Medicaid and Social Security verification systems.
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A study of just nine states (including Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan) that responded to the Foundation revealed that, between 2019 and 2023, the number of illegal aliens on state Medicaid in those states soared 500%.
The study says that in the five states that provided financial information, it cost taxpayers nearly 550% more to cover illegal aliens.
The U.S. hospital system has struggled to handle the massive red tape of verifying whether patients are legal citizens due to a new loophole under Biden and Harris.
As such, burdened hospitals often can't follow up, creating a new iteration of "catch and release" in the U.S. hospital system.
First, U.S. states usually check a patient's citizenship status through federal sources such as Social Security. The loophole is that, if the government data doesn't match, states give patients a 90-day grace period to get documentation to verify eligibility and obtain Medicaid coverage for healthcare.
Health and Human Services blocks states from restricting any extension of those grace periods, so long as an illegal alien makes a good faith to prove citizenship. Now states are regularly extending the grace periods beyond 90 days.
And in another move worsening the problem, the Biden Administration in 2021 forced Social Security to stop issuing "no match" letters to U.S. businesses, which were red-flag notices that their workers were not legal citizens because they don't come up in the Social Security system via matches with IRS W-2 wage reporting forms.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that, as of 2022, there are roughly 21.2 million noncitizen immigrants in the U.S., about 7% of the total population. Roughly six in ten noncitizen immigrants are lawfully present, while the remaining four are undocumented.
Illegal aliens and non-qualified immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid, so long as they meet eligibility requirements for their state's Medicaid program. However, illegal aliens are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage, including full Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare, or to purchase coverage through the Obamacare system.
Some states, like California and New York, are already expanding Medicaid coverage to illegal aliens. Illegal aliens aged 65 and older who meet income and other eligibility requirements can now enroll in Medicaid in New York. California and Oregon already fund full Medicaid benefits for illegal migrants. California's state Medicaid coverage of illegal aliens costs California taxpayers about $4 billion annually, the Foundation says.
Florida's Medicaid spending on emergency health care to illegal migrants dropped dramatically by 54% year over year as of June, after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis directed hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients about their immigration status.
PRODUCTION - 05 February 2024, Rhineland-Palatinate, Trier: A doctor stands in the corridor of the emergency room at Klinikum Mutterhaus. In many hospitals in Rhineland-Palatinate, significantly more patients are currently crowding into the emergency … (Harald Tittel/picture alliance via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
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"Nationwide, taxpayers could soon be paying tens of billions of dollars on health care for people who have no right to our safety net—including those who have no right to be in the country," says Hayden Dublois, analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
"All of health care will suffer, too," Dublois says. "Medicaid pays much less than private insurance, so burdening hospitals with illegal aliens will lead to mounting red ink. Some hospitals have already closed, especially in states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, and covering illegal aliens will likely cause more to follow suit."