I just read this article in the NY Times and it made me audibly gasp. I just can’t wrap my mind around how this president can say he supports life–more than the rest of us mind you–, and then do this. The “this” I refer to is a new Medicaid policy where newborns born in this country (and thus, under our Constitution, citizens) are being made to apply for benefits by showing a birth certificate before receiving care. For the past 22 years the policy (and the law) have been that an infant born to illigal immigrants in this country is automatically covered.Â
The last time I went to the ER a lady came in to admitting in labor and they just sent her on up to maternity–no questions asked. Even though I was terribly weak, I thought to myself “Thank God we are getting right on this.” No matter how you feel about immigration, I would hope that simple kindness, simple humanity, would tell you that this was not the time for politics or for paperwork. It is a baby coming into the world. That trumps everything. I don’t care if it is Eva Braun having a baby, a woman in labor deserves kindness.Â
And once that baby, a U.S. citizen, is born, that baby deserves health care. Where exactly does it get us to deny that baby care? Hmm, let’s not treat a condition for the first three months and let’s see if it gets less expensive to treat–not likely. These babies are citizens, so it will wind up that they are eligible for coverage, so why make it more expensive to treat them? (Wait, I know, we are hoping that the parents will take them “back where they belong” instead of applying. Or maybe we can get lucky and they will all die before the paperwork goes through.)
This is vindictive, cruel and short-sighted. Not to mention directly contrary to federal law. How can they keep getting away with this sort of thing while proclaiming their goodness, righteousness, and moral superiority? How can Kerry’s misspeaking be bigger news than deliberate cruelty and mind-blowing hypocricy? Why are Americans swallowing this?