Thread: NC:Hispanics & social services: DSS strained but not bro

Hispanics and social services: DSS strained but not broken

By Robert Boyer / Times-News
August 25, 2007 7:05 PM

The growing Hispanic population has strained the county’s social services system somewhat, but the overall impact is still relatively small, agency leaders say.

Hispanics make up 10 percent of the county’s population, but account for about one-seventh of its Medicaid recipients.

In May, the county had 18,470 Medicaid recipients. Of those 2,752, or 14.9 percent, were Hispanic.

Medicaid is the federal health program for the elderly, poor, and disabled. Federal law excludes illegal immigrants from coverage unless they require emergency treatment or labor and delivery services.

Those exceptions are proving costly for taxpayers.

The county now pays 5.63 percent of Medicaid costs. Between July 2006 and June, the county’s Medicaid share totaled $7.2 million, says Susan Osborne, the director the Alamance County Department of Social Services.

The county DSS administers Medicaid services locally.

When it comes to Medicaid care for illegal immigrants, the county picked up the tab for almost $90,000 out a total bill of $1.59 million over the period, Osborne says.
Federal and state tax dollars took care the rest.

The vast majority of the 430 illegal immigrants who received services in the 2006-07 budget year were pregnant Hispanic women.

Labor and delivery services accounted for about $1.45 million of the total Medicaid bill for all illegal immigrants in the county.

Despite these numbers, the overall impact of Hispanics to the department is still relatively small, say Osborne and Assistant DSS Director Linda Allison.

That’s because two-thirds of the county’s Medicaid budget goes toward for long-term care, hospitalizations and medications, services that exclude most Hispanics, they say.
Low-income families make up two-thirds of the county’s Medicaid rolls, but account for only one-third of the spending, Osborne says.

A recent requirement from the federal government related to the immigration issue, one that covers every DSS client, is having a noticeable impact.

Since January 2006, DSS workers must verify the citizenship status of all clients. Clients, regardless of their race or ethnic background, must provide a copy of a certified birth certificate.

The federal government wants to make sure that only U.S. citizens are getting the full range of Medicaid services, Osborne says.

But the requirement has created a “probably unintentionalâ€

DUGH.......every Government or State funded program is overloaded....not to mention I have yet to see one break a sweat or felt that their job might be in jeopardy if they didn't knock it up to forward. I've often wondered if they called FIRE in a government building if they would ever make it out alive.

I'm not trying to be mean but please.....life or death? I'd be picking out my casket if left up to them. Seriously....when I applied for food stamps....they shuffled along in SLIPPERS! FUZZY ones.....no confusing them with "slides" or "slip ons" Or "clogs" or anything else.