Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
I already did, but as you seem to be lazy...
I also believe that there is existing law prohibiting illegals from participating in Federally funded medical care unless it's an emergency.
-spence
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And Democrats respond, “No, we didn’t. We don’t need that, because Medicare and Medicaid and such already require documentation of legal status.”
Here's a neat summary of the findings of a Medicaid audit in the state of Washington, in which seven-figure sums were improperly diverted to illegal aliens, and in which program administrators apparently fought tooth and talon to undermine the audit, going so far as to alter records. Read for yourself. Washington:
• paid $22 million to individuals who did not provide valid Social Security Numbers (SSN) or offered no SSN at all;
• paid more than $1 million to individuals claiming a deceased relative's SSN;
• provided $1.3 million in unallowable medical services to illegal aliens;
• cannot account for more than 1.4 million in pills worth in excess of $529,000; and
• did not cooperate with SAO's audit, leading to the disclaiming of the $6.1 billion Medicaid program.
Regarding the lack of cooperation extended by DSHS, SAO made the following statements throughout its audit:
• [DSHS] personnel attempted to thwart particular audit procedures by questioning our authority to either expand the scope of our audit or to obtain certain information.
• [DSHS] altered information related to sample transactions while we were attempting to complete our review.
• In some instances, we were unable to independently interview line staff without the presence of management or without management's selection of the employees to be interviewed.
• Staff members informed us that they had to obtain permission from management prior to speaking with auditors. During our review of the allowability of certain medical procedures and of procedures provided to undocumented aliens, we were never granted permission to speak with the medical consultants who had approval authority.
• The audit liaison system, as actually used by the Department, hindered our access to data and obstructed our contact with line staff. Additionally, the audit liaison system attempted to force us to rely on the Department's representations as to the existence or accuracy of evidence. In effect, the Department was attempting to perform the work of the auditor, instead of allowing the auditors to perform an independent audit and reach a valid conclusion.
• It is inappropriate for the Department to withhold information because it believes it is not relevant or significant. The auditor should be given the information requested and have an opportunity to examine it and discuss it with the Department before the auditor decides its importance.
The law empowers states to use Medicaid funds to cover “emergency” services for illegals. One of the emergency services covered is the delivery of babies. It is hard to imagine denying care to a woman being wheeled into an emergency room in labor. But, of course, providing care to women being wheeled into emergency rooms in labor was not the end of it. Bureaucracies like to grow, government bureaucracies are home to lots of Democrats, and illegal aliens provide a nice source of supplementary voters for Democrats in states such as — and let’s just pick two — California and Illinois.
So, rather than emergency deliveries being covered, pregnancy itself becomes an “emergency” condition, and Medicaid funds ended up getting used to pay for routine prenatal care and other services related to same. And then they began to be used for post-partum care, as well. The government’s own reportage documents lots of episodes in which federal funds have been used to subsidize illegals in contravention of existing statutes. On what grounds might we suppose that Obamacare would be any different? Especially if we consider that Republican efforts to help ensure that Obamacare might prove different were rejected? And might we be justified in asking the Democrats why, exactly, they voted against those measures? After all, if they are superfluous, they will have no real effect: If existing controls are sufficient, the illegals will be weeded out of the system well before they came up against these putative restrictions, no?
A GAO report finds that illegal immigrants constitute more than one-third of all Medicaid-funded pregnancies in California.