Title: How Undocumented Immigrants Sometimes Receive Medicaid Treatment | PBS NewsHour
Headings: How Undocumented Immigrants Sometimes Receive Medicaid Treatment
How Undocumented Immigrants Sometimes Receive Medicaid Treatment
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Content: The category includes a small proportion of homeless people and legal immigrants who’ve been in the country less than five years. Hospitals can’t ask patients whether they’re illegal immigrants, but instead determine that after checking whether they have Social Security numbers, birth certificates or other documents. “We gather information to qualify patients for something and through that process, if you really hit a dead end, you know they are illegal,” said Steve Short, the chief financial officer at Tampa General Hospital. A 2007 medical article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 99 percent of those who used Emergency Medicaid during a four-year period in North Carolina were thought to be illegal immigrants. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to limit immigration, said the funding led more women to give birth in the United States, especially since they knew that children born here would be American citizens. The group believes that tens of thousands of “anchor babies” are born each year to illegal immigrants who hope that giving birth to children recognized as citizens will help the women gain legal status themselves. Anyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. It’s unclear how many mothers later get green cards or become citizens. The Federation for American Immigration Reform doesn’t dispute hospitals’ right to be reimbursed for care they’re required to provide. “Our focus should be that you could save this money if you prevent the illegal immigration from happening in the first place.