Medicaid Changes Worry Community

In about four months, Amarilys Suarez of Haines City will give birth to her second child.

In the past few weeks, Suarez, 22, has been preparing for the big day and has already picked a name for her unborn daughter. But her pregnancy has suddenly changed from a joyful celebration into a thought of fear.

Suarez, an undocumented immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, learned Friday of a change in government policy on health coverage for babies born to illegal residents. Newborns of undocumented residents no longer automatically qualify for Medicaid, a government program that covers health care costs for poor families, even though children born in the United States are American citizens.

"It's scary to know my (welfare needing anchor) baby will be treated differently because I (knowingly) made a choice to (break the law to) find a better life," Suarez said Friday at El Zocalo grocery store (through an interpreter because she has never learned to speak English and planned to have her children taught in Spanish only in bilingual schools). "I don't know what to think or to do (since I counted on the stupid gringos to pay for all my family's welfare, food stamps, medical care and anchor baby delivery costs). We are a poor (welfare dependent) family (who counts on having the gringo taxpayers to pay for all the anchor babies I planned to have). I guess there is no way (to mooch off tapxpayers like I expected to do when I came here illegally) to turn for help anymore."

Suarez will have to leave her part-time job as a housekeeper soon. Her husband is a seasonal construction worker. Suarez has a 3-year-old son, an American citizen born in Polk County.

Illegal immigrants are generally excluded from Medicaid, which draws federal and state funding. Under the previous policy, women without legal status received Medicaid coverage for labor and delivery, and states covered health-care costs for the baby's first year of life. Babies of illegal residents are still eligible for Medicaid, but now their parents must apply and provide proof of the child's citizenship.

Cont.