A lawsuit was filed yesterday against Massachusetts Legislature for excluding legal immigrants from state-subsidized health insurance coverage. In total, coverage was cut for 26,000 legal immigrants from Commonwealth Care, the state’s Medicaid program, which eliminated $130 million in funding last year.
The suit claims excluding legal immigrants is unconstitutional and a violation of rights.
According to The Boston Globe, those who were cut from coverage were instead given stripped-down health insurance plans with higher copayments for medications and treatments.
Since the law was passed, 8,000 more legal immigrants have become eligible for Commonwealth Care but have been denied coverage. Massachusetts Legislature capped enrollment in the health care system last year and will not allow any more immigrants into the program.
Massachusetts’ lawmakers say they didn’t want to cut immigrants coverage, but cited cost as the biggest issue. According to the article, the federal government provides much less Medicaid funding for legal immigrants than U.S. citizens.
The only problem with the suit is that it’s still questionable whether immigrants can legally sue the state Legislature at all.
We’ll have to see how this all plays out. Interesting stuff.