Congressman Charlie Norwood Press Release
CONTACT: JOHN STONE PHONE (202) 225-4101 FAX (202) 226-0776 http://www.house.gov/norwood
September 15, 2006

Deal, Norwood Introduce Measure to Keep Children’s Medicaid Solvent in 17 States through Year’s End

 

(Washington, DC) - America’s Medicaid program for low-income children would remain funded through 2006, if legislation introduced this week by Georgia Congressmen Nathan Deal (R-10) and Charlie Norwood (R-9) is passed into law before Congress recesses on September 29.

The Georgia State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), along with the SCHIP program in 16 other states, would run out of funds for the year over the next few weeks without the legislative correction by Deal and Norwood. The bill would provide an additional $900 million for 2006 SCHIP spending for states facing imminent shortfalls, with much of the crisis due to fraudulent claims by illegal aliens.

"This is one patient population that we can never allow to go underserved," says Norwood, "because children are absolutely incapable of providing healthcare for themselves. A lack of adequate healthcare in childhood can lead to a lifetime of health problems, and as any dentist will tell you, preventive care is the least expensive way to provide health care in the world. I’m hoping that this is the last year we have to provide stop-gap funding for these kids, as the reforms we passed into law this session start to take hold to preserve SCHIP healthcare benefits nationwide."

Norwood and Deal earlier this year teamed up to pass into law new requirements that all Medicaid recipients prove U.S. citizenship or legal immigrant status in order to obtain comprehensive Medicaid benefits, including the SCHIP program. The veteran Georgia legislators made the case that thousands of illegal immigrants were fraudulently claiming benefits, bankrupting the program, and leaving low-income Georgians without health care. In Georgia, where proof of citizenship and income requirements went into effect earlier this year, over 70,000 former Medicaid recipients in Georgia have failed to re-apply for benefits, confirming the degree of fraudulent claims by illegal aliens against the system.

However, the savings from the reform were not in time to avoid having to provide additional federal funds to preserve SCHIP benefits for the remainder of the year in Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and South Dakota.

 
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CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE NORWOOD 2452 RAYBURN BUILDING WASHINGTON,DC 20515 www.house.gov/norwood