{"id":2867,"date":"2006-11-05T00:30:12","date_gmt":"2006-11-05T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/11\/05\/republicans-take-healthcare-away-from-newborns\/"},"modified":"2006-11-05T00:30:12","modified_gmt":"2006-11-05T07:30:12","slug":"republicans-take-healthcare-away-from-newborns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2867","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Take Healthcare Away From Newborns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The appallingness continues to escalate. From the New York Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 \u2014 Under a new federal policy, children born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through Medicaid, Bush administration officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Doctors and hospitals said the policy change would make it more difficult for such infants, who are United States citizens, to obtain health care needed in the first year of life. […]<\/p>\n

Marilyn E. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Medicaid program, said: “The federal government told us we have no latitude. All states must change their policies and practices. We will not be able to cover any services for the newborn until a Medicaid application is filed. That could be days, weeks or months after the child is born.” […]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Bush administration claims that they have no choice under the Deficit Reduction Act. But although the DRA does tighten immigration requirements, it doesn’t say a word about infants; nor are infants born in the USA immigrants. They’re citizens, just as American as Bush’s own daughters. More from the Times <\/em>article:<\/p>\n

Doctors and hospitals denounced the policy change and denied that it was required by the new law. Dr. Jay E. Berkelhamer, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the policy “punishes babies who, according to the Constitution, are citizens because they were born here.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet another example of how the “pro-life” party doesn’t give a damn about babies once they’re born. Medical care during the first year of a baby’s life shouldn’t be subject to a months-long wait for the government to process papers, and it shouldn’t place non-citizen parents in the position of thinking that they have to choose between exposing themselves to the INS and providing their child with the healthcare it needs.<\/p>\n

Curtsy: Tennessee Guerilla Women<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The appallingness continues to escalate. From the New York Times: WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 \u2014 Under a new federal policy, children born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-immigration-migrant-rights-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}