The Associated Press is reporting that Florida and Texas top the list of states with the greatest number of people who may be booted from health coverage under the Obama/Pelosi Affordable Care Act. Immigrants have until September 5th to produce documents showing their eligibility. I guess this also means they have been enjoying subsidized health coverage for some time already.
Will Obama illegally extend this deadline too?
AP at WPTV 5 West Palm Beach:
MIAMI (AP) — Nearly 100,000 Floridians who bought health insurance through the Affordable Care Act could have their taxpayer-subsidized coverage canceled if they don’t send citizenship and immigration documents to confirm their eligibility by Sept. 5.
Federal health officials sent out letters in English and Spanish to consumers Tuesday warning there was an inconsistency between what they wrote on their health insurance application and the immigration and citizenship information that the feds have on record. Officials will reach out to consumers two more times by phone and once via email before the deadline. The documents must be submitted by Sept. 5 or coverage will end Sept. 30.
Many consumers have already been contacted five to seven times, but still haven’t responded, senior health officials said on a conference call Tuesday.
Of the 8 million people around the country who signed up for private coverage through President Barack Obama’s law, more than 2 million at one point had discrepancies of one sort or another that could have affected their eligibility. That number has been greatly reduced — but the remaining cases are proving difficult to untangle.
Nearly 1 million U.S. consumers have immigration-related inconsistencies with their applications. The feds have closed 450,000 cases and another 210,000 are in progress. But 310,000 consumers haven’t submitted any documents, including 93,800 in Florida.
Florida has the highest number, followed by Texas with 52,700, according to data from federal health officials.
By the way, legal refugees should have no problem getting coverage under Obamacare and in fact the Office of Refugee Resettlement is looking to states which have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare to be states they will target with more refugee placement. See news about “Key Indicators” here.