By Maggie's Notebook
The AP calls it an ObamaCare "quirk...unintended consequences." I call it the Obama agenda of grinding down America. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently made news when she opted-in for a greatly expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare (which will eventually bankrupt the state - my words, not hers).
"If Arizona does not expand, for poor Arizonans below (the federal poverty line), only legal immigrants, but not citizens, would be eligible for subsidies," the documents said.Now here is something else we can lay squarely on the shoulders of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts:
Starting Jan. 1, 2014, the health care law will offer health insurance to millions of people now uninsured. Middle-class uninsured people will be able to get taxpayer-subsidized private policies through new markets called exchanges. Low-income uninsured people will be steered to Medicaid, a government program jointly funded by Washington and the states.
Under previous laws, legal immigrants have to wait five years to qualify for Medicaid. Ng'andu said Hispanic advocacy groups wanted to lift that restriction during the 2009 congressional health care debate, but couldn't get political support. The Medicaid waiting period remained in place, but a compromise was reached that would allow low-income legal immigrants to get subsidized private coverage in the new health insurance exchanges.
The health care law expanded Medicaid to cover millions of low-income adults who are ineligible under current rules. As written, the law assumed that every state would accept the Medicaid expansion, with Washington paying for most of it. So the law stipulated that people below the federal poverty line — $11, 170 for a single person, $23,050 for a family of four — could not get subsidies for private coverage in the exchanges. Medicaid was to be their only option.
Legal immigrants here for less than five years remained an exception.
Along came the Supreme Court. It upheld Obama's law, but ruled that states were free to accept or reject the Medicaid expansion. The court did not touch the issue of coverage for legal immigrants in the health insurance exchanges. That provision remained in place.
And that's how the immigration glitch came to be. Poor people in a state that turns down Obama's Medicaid expansion can only get government subsidized coverage if they are legal immigrants. U.S. citizens are out of luck. Source: Daily HeraldAmerica changed forever with Justice John Roberts' decision on the legality of ObamaCare. Today he enjoys the public adoration of Liberals in Washington, D.C. I bet he drinks Cosmos. He should carry the shame to his grave (and no, I'm not wishing him dead).
Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook
