August 08, 2007

Is Ruth Marcus lying about SCHIP?

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post offers "Attack Ads You'll Be Seeing", predicting that the GOP is going to run ads claiming that the Democrats want to take funds from U.S. citizens and give them to illegal aliens. Certainly, the Dems have tried something like this with the DREAM Act, and they certainly appear to be trying to do something similar with the SCHIP program. She says otherwise, or at least she says something:

The provision at issue would repeal a 2006 requirement that everyone applying for Medicaid provide proof of citizenship -- passports or original birth certificates. That might sound sensible, but it has been a cumbersome, expensive solution to a non-problem.

In 2005, when he was overseeing the Medicaid program for the Bush administration, Mark McClellan noted that an inspector general's investigation did "not find particular problems regarding false allegations of citizenship, nor are we aware of any."

...The House provision makes the documentation requirement optional for states, which, after all, have an interest in seeing that their Medicaid dollars are spent properly. Adults on Medicaid would still have to prove citizenship, swear that their children are citizens and provide their children's Social Security numbers. And states would have to conduct annual audits to ensure that no illegal immigrants are being covered.

Thankfully, this site has pointed out the problems in her argument, sparing me the effort.

Posted to Immigration2007a at August 8, 2007 02:53 PM

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