Speech #1040244335

Premier. Inc.. and The Catholic Health Association of the United States. My amendment responds to their concern by postponing the implementation of the Medicaid changes on immigrants for 2 years. in order to enable State and local governments and hospitals and clinics to make the major adjustments required under this bill. Even with this transition. these changes will hurt the health care system and harm the public health. It is bad public health policy to deny Medicaid to legal immigrants. Last April. the National Conference of State Legislatures. the National Association of Counties. and the National League of Cities wrote to Congress stating: Without this program eligibility. many legal immigrants will not have access to health care. Legal immigrants will be forced to turn to State indigent health care programs. public hospitals. and emergency rooms for assistance or avoid treatment altogether. This will in turn endanger the public health and increase the cost of providing health care to everyone. But if these changes are to take place. then we should at least give health providers the time they need to adjust. Although the bill continues emergency Medicaid for legal immigrants. they would be banned from regular Medicaid for 5 years. After that. they can qualify for Medicaid only if their sponsors income and resources are too low to assist them. But States can decide to ban legal immigrants permanently from Medicaid. Hospitals fear that if Medicaid is restricted. the loss of funds will require them to reduce services for everyonecitizens and noncitizens alike. Especially vulnerable are the most costly services. such as trauma care. burn treatment. and neonatal intensive care. This crisis in funding will particularly affect hospitals that serve communities with large numbers of immigrants. In the case of public hospitals. most patients have Medicaid coverage. Today. at Cambridge City Hospital in Massachusetts. 48 percent of the patients are immigrants. That means the hospital could lose half of its Medicaid funding under this bill. For Los Angeles County Hospital. the figure is 60 percent.