Proposed Class Action Suit Targets Medicaid Citizenship Law

By William Murphy

Published on June 30, 2006

The law, part of President Bush's Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, is scheduled to go into effect July 1. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 10 years the law will save the government more than $950 million.

The lawsuit names Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt as defendant. Filed on behalf of nine current Medicaid beneficiaries by Chicago's Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the suit contends that the new law violates Fifth Amendment due-process protections because it arbitrarily sets deadlines and requires documents.

DHHS spokeswoman Mary Kahn downplayed the effect of the law, estimating that only 35,000 of 55 million current Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing their benefits.

According to Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer group Families USA, a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that up to 5 million people could be at risk of losing Medicaid benefits under the new requirements. He alleged that political posturing related to the current uproar over illegal immigration motivated passage of the law.

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