Administration Changes Health Coverage Policy for (Citizen) Babies

The NY Times reports (here) that, after a lawsuit and much criticism from Congress, the Bush administration reversed its policy and said that babies born to undocumented immigrants with low incomes could automatically qualify for one year of Medicaid coverage. Federal officials dropped their insistence that illegal immigrants document the citizenship of the newborns. State officials, hospitals and pediatricians had said the requirement made no sense because, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, people born in this country are United States citizens.

The change in policy came just 15 days after the State of Washington challenged the policy in a lawsuit. Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington welcomed the change. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who had introduced a bill to overturn the administration policy, said Tuesday that the reversal was “a positive step.” Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, said: “I’m glad the administration has taken this small step to fix a problem that it created. But we have a long way to go before the larger issue of citizenship documentation is resolved.”

KJ