John Kerry: “Last year Congress enacted legislation that I sponsored with Senator McCain to provide payment to some 450 Vietnamese…”

“Last year Congress enacted legislation that I sponsored with Senator McCain to provide payment to some 450 Vietnamese commandos who were captured by North Vietnamese forces while performing covert operations for the United States behind enemy lines and subsequently incarcerated in North Vietnamese prisons for 20 years or more. Under this legislation, each of the commandos would receive a lump sum payment of $40,000--payment their families did not receive during their years of incarceration because the Pentagon wrote them off the employment rolls by declaring them dead. Presently about 200 of the commandos reside in the United States. Most are either U.S. citizens or resident aliens applying for citizenship. Many of them receive Medicaid and related benefits. The problem is that receipt of the long overdue lump sum payment will disqualify them from Medicaid and other benefits they currently receive because it raises their income above the cutoff point for benefits. Let me give you an example. Last year, I met with a group of commandos including Ly Pho, who lives in my home State of Massachusetts. Ly and his colleagues wanted to express their thanks for our efforts to provide them compensation. Shortly after the meeting, which was widely reported in the press in Massachusetts, Ly was notified by his social service case worker that his Medicaid assistance would be terminated once he received the compensation.”