Political Quotes

“it has been less than 4 months since passage of the Deficit Reduction Act. That bill cut Medicaid health benefits for our Nation's low-income children, seniors, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. One provision of the bill requires Medicaid beneficiaries to present a passport or birth certificate as proof of citizenship before they are eligible for benefits or to renew their benefits. All States had the legal authority to require beneficiaries to furnish these documents before we passed the Federal law. However, 47 States have made the decision not to require that identification of Medicaid recipients. Many low-income Americans don't have these documents, and most States have decided that requiring them would create a hardship and a barrier to health care for some of the poorest people in America. Instead, States allowed written self-declaration of citizenship and had what are called prudent person policies in place if State personnel were suspicious and wanted further proof. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services conducted a review of these self-declaration policies and found that most States that conducted post-eligibility quality control measures have not found any problems with self-declaration of citizenship. The system was working.…”