Thread: NE-Bishops: Support immigrants aid

Published Thursday March 4, 2010

Bishops: Support immigrants aid

LINCOLN — Nebraska's Catholic bishops are turning up the heat on Gov. Dave Heineman to reverse his opposition to government-funded prenatal care for low-income, illegal immigrants.

In a letter Wednesday to the governor, Omaha Archbishop George Lucas, Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and Grand Island Bishop Thomas Dendinger expressed their “high level of concern and disappointmentâ€

Deprt them to their home country. Let them get all the help they need there. That would make one less illegal alien and one less anchor babby for taxpayers to support.

This what has the Pro-ILLEGAL Big Religion hierarchy of the church upset! They are like any other Special Interest Group, just follow the money. Most Special Interest Groups are only concerned for "their" agenda of profit and/or power, not the people they pretend to speak for or save from harm.

I am going to contact Gov. Heineman to express my support for his stand with United States Citizens and against the ILLEGAL invasion.

News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2010, 4:00 p.m. CT

CONTACT

Jen Rae Hein, Gov's Office
Ashley Cradduck, Gov's Office
Kathie Osterman, DHHS



Gov. Heineman Calls for End to Medicaid Services for Illegal Immigrants
(Lincoln, Neb.) Gov. Dave Heineman today announced that he will not support efforts to establish a taxpayer-funded program that would provide prenatal Medicaid services for persons here illegally.

At a hearing for Legislative Bill 1110 before the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, Kerry Winterer, CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, shared the following letter submitted on behalf of the Governor and the department.

“Dear Senator Gay and members of the Health and Human Services Committee:

“This letter provides an update regarding the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) activities in addressing the eligibility of legal and illegal pregnant women to receive Medicaid coverage.

“To comply with Federal directive, on February 4, DHHS notified by letter 5,805 women with active cases that coverage for the unborn would end on March 1. At that time, an additional 516 applications for coverage had been received and were pending review. DHHS Economic Assistance caseworkers made it a priority to review each of these 6,321 cases to determine if the pregnant woman was eligible to qualify for Medicaid at 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. This review took into account the feedback received from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that Medicaid rules do allow the unborn to be counted in the household size for the purpose of eligibility.

“Economic Assistance caseworkers have reviewed all 6,321 cases. As of February 24:

4,655 pregnant women who are legal residents have been determined to be eligible for continued Medicaid coverage.


709 pregnant women who are in the U.S. legally are not eligible for Medicaid coverage. The primary reasons for ineligibility in these cases are being over the income limit; program sanctions, mainly involving Employment First or Child Support; relocation outside of Nebraska; and a failure to provide necessary information to determine eligibility.
DHHS is working with 115 pregnant women to collect additional information needed to determine eligibility. Coverage for these individuals is being extended to March 31 to allow additional time to determine eligibility.


842 pregnant women are illegal immigrants and are not eligible for Medicaid coverage.

“Any individual who has been determined to be ineligible has the right to appeal.

“Fourteen states (Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin) currently have separate Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) for the unborn population. However, Tennessee’s program does not cover illegal immigrants.

The other 35 states do not provide coverage based on the unborn population.

“None of the states surrounding Nebraska (Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota) provide CHIP coverage to illegal immigrants.

[b]“The key issue remaining to be resolved is whether illegal immigrants should be receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. This is a difficult issue and we know that there is disagreement among well-meaning people. After a careful and thoughtful review of the various aspects of this issue, we are opposed to illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.â€

As a resident of the state of NE I suggest that if the Catholic Church is so concerned for the well being of these unborn children that they pay for their prenatal care.

Thanks for posting this, now I have three bishop's name that I can write to with my suggestion. I believe that if the Catholic Church continues to get involved in these issues that they should start paying taxes. They are a political organization, not a church.

Please, this issue is coming down to who can apply the most pressure - so if you haven't yet made phone calls or sent emails please help us:


Public Pulse letters to: pulse@owh.com

Gov. Heineman: dave.heineman@nebraska.gov

The Omaha Catholic Archdiocese contact is:
Archbishop George Lucas 402-558-3100

The Douglas County Commissioner who as Chairman of Douglas County Health gave support to pass this bill: Chris Rodgers 402-444-7025

A paragraph in the Fiscal Note attached to LB1110 Prenatal Care for Illegal Alien women is:

The total cost of continuing medical services to unborn children no longer eligible under Medicaid in the CHIP is

$3,482,167 in FY 10 and $14,209,672 in FY 11 and $14,495,087 in FY 12.

To cover this population under CHIP, $961,426

GF in FY 10, $4,133,593 GF in FY 11 would need to be moved from the

Medicaid appropriation to the CHIP appropriation.
In FY 12, it is estimated that Medicaid would have $4,216,621 less in Medicaid general fund expenditures and an increase
of the same amount in CHIP. The state would draw down $2,520,741 in FY 10, $10,076,079 in FY 11 and $10,278,466 in
FY 12 of the federal CHIP allotment.[/u]

Let the Bishops pay for all of it!

They might change their mind and support deportation also.

Prenatal care issue could figure into endorsements
www.journalstar.com

LINCOLN -- A Nebraska pro-life group that can make or break political candidates in some races said Thursday that state
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USS NAG said on: March 5, 2010, 11:53 pm

Way to go Nebraska Politicians and HHS! According to this article for the 2,800 Illegal Alien women who received prenatal care the 40% cost to Nebraska taxpayers was $1,064,000 and the healthcare faciitys made $1,596,000 from Medicaid. Hmmmm. Let's see now, let's add the cost of a vaginal birth with NO complications at the national average at $17,000 x 2,800 Illegal Aliens = $47,600,000 x 40% cost to Nebraskans was $18,800,000 and Healtcare facilities made $28,200,000 from Medicaid. Now let's take the c-sections with NO complications national average @ $25,000 x 2,800 Illegal Aliens = $70million x 40% cost to Nebraskans $28million and the healthcare facilities made $42 million from Medicaid.

Wow, how generous the Ultra Liberal Socialists are with Nebraska Taxpayer money!

Now we understand why 17 Healthcare facilities showed up to testify in support of this bill....except they weren't telling us how much money they would lose...they kept saying... our babies, our children....(excuse me I had to blow my nose and wipe my tears).

Let me tell you something lawmakers, if YOU do NOT have the BACKBONE to stand up to the PROFITEERS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, then GET OUT OF OUR UNICAMERAL!

How DARE you campaign stump, misleading voting citizens to think you were running for office to protect our interests. How DARE you back down because pro-life groups are misguided by thinking this is a pro-life issue!

How DARE you!