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Report: California won't immediately enforce new Medi-Cal ID law

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A new federal law aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from getting Medicaid won't be enforced in California until guidelines are set up to make sure U.S. citizens don't mistakenly lose their benefits.

The law requires that beginning July 1, 50 million enrollees in the nation's government-funded health insurance program (called Medi-Cal in California) must provide identification and proof of citizenship to receive benefits. People granted asylum and legal immigrants who have been in the country at least five years also are eligible.

But the federal government has not released guidelines on implementing the rule and the state hasn't had time to develop plans, train workers or notify Medi-Cal patients, said Stan Rosenstein, deputy director of medical care services in the California Department of Health Services.

"It would be impossible to implement this on July 1 from a practical standpoint," Rosenstein told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. "We don't want people looking back at this effort and saying the state of California really messed this up."

About 650,000 of the nearly 7 million Medi-Cal recipients may lack birth certificates, passports or other documents even though they are legal residents, according to the California Budget Project, a nonprofit group that studies government policies affecting the poor.

About half of Medi-Cal recipients are children.

It may be midsummer before the state is ready to notify county service agencies on how to enforce the rule, Rosenstein said.

It was unclear whether federal officials would penalize California for the delay.