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Care for the aging poor It isn't a very happy new year for more than
4,000 legal immigrants whose medical benefits under the state's Old Age
Pension program were drastically slashed as of last Thursday. The state will stop paying for the hospital
stays of these poor legal residents. It has also slashed reimbursement to
doctors from 82 percent of the Medicaid rate to 50 percent. The state
Medical Services Board voted Dec. 12 to cut the Old Age Pension Health and
Medical Care Fund because the program would exceed its budget by $2.5
million. Earlier last year, Gov. Bill Owens signed a
bill that revoked Medicaid coverage for some legal immigrants. The
American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law in federal court on
equal-protection grounds. After a federal district judge threw out the
lawsuit, it was appealed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The
appellate court stayed implementation. Most of the 4,289 people receiving the
$589-a-month state old-age benefits are legal immigrants, including
Russian-Jewish refugees, Vietnamese and Hispanics. The constitutionally
authorized plan dates from Depression days and provides $10 million a year
for the care of the elderly poor - over 60 but younger than 65, the
minimum age for Medicare. Some aren't eligible for Social Security and
are very ill cancer victims, whose chronic conditions don't qualify for
emergency treatment, which is mandated under federal law. These immigrants have nowhere else to turn -
some of the Russian Jews, for example, were offered refuge by our
government as they fled anti-Semitism in the former The idea of poor, sick people being
abandoned without hope in the world's richest country strikes us as
unconscionable. As cash-strapped as state government is,
surely it can find the needed $2.5 million somewhere in its
multi-billion-dollar reserves. (Especially now that the economy is turning
up.) The true measure of a society isn't how
prosperous its wealthiest citizens are but how it tends to the neediest.
Surely Copyright © 2002
Global Action on Aging |
