California Group Applauds Crackdown on Medicaid Fraud by Illegal Aliens

– Legislation requires aid recipients to prove citizenship –

Santa Barbara , CA — February 6, 2006 – Limited Medicaid funds will be spent on poor Americans instead of illegal aliens under a budget package approved by Congress. The final budget reconciliation bill includes a requirement that Medicaid recipients prove U.S. citizenship or legal presence in the country before receiving benefits.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that scarce healthcare dollars are taken from poor Americans and spent on those who casually break our laws and are encouraged to do so by the Mexican government,” said Diana Hull, president of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), which supported the measure. “The more we learn about the effects of massive illegal immigration, the clearer it becomes that our own poor are the ones who suffer the consequences. While we might wish that every sick person in the world could be cared for, we have a special obligation to members of our national family.”

According to a study from the Center for Immigration Studies, based on Census Bureau data, illegal immigrants use at least $2.5 billion annually in Medicaid services, one of many programs that pays for their health care. A report by the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General found that the current system "allows false statements of citizenship to go undetected.”

Emergency healthcare will still be provided to illegal immigrants, but their medical bills will no longer be deducted from state Medicaid funds to the detriment of legal low-income residents.

Immigration and births to immigrants causes 94.5 percent of California’s population growth of 500,000 people each year. This rapid growth causes or exacerbates a number of serious problems. “Emergency rooms are being closed, our schools are overcrowded and underperforming, and our roads are clogged to a standstill,” Hull noted.

“Gaining control of our border is essential,” stated Hull “to provide security against terrorists who want to destroy us and it is necessary to protect our environment and natural resources against overuse and depletion, save California farmland from being paved over for housing, preserve open space and save our neighborhoods from unwanted high density. It is also necessary to protect health services for our own poor, who have the greater entitlement to the taxpayer funds that were set aside for their care.”

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