Thread: Nebraska: Thousands May Keep Medicaid Benefits Afterall

Updated: 5:31 PM Feb 12, 2010
Thousands May Keep Medicaid Benefits Afterall
Thousands of pregnant women on Medicaid may end up keeping their prenatal health care coverage. A Nebraska state official says a review of over two-thousand cases, shows most of the women involved are eligible to keep benefits.
Posted: 5:27 PM Feb 12, 2010
Reporter: WOWT
3 comments

Thousands of pregnant women on Medicaid may end up keeping their prenatal health care coverage. A Nebraska state official says a review of over two-thousand cases, shows most of the women involved are eligible to keep benefits.

It's the latest twist in a complicated story that began last Fall.

The state of Nebraska learned that for more than 30 years it had been incorrectly providing prenatal health care to some women on Medicaid. The care was being provided because the state had qualified the unborn child for benefits, not necessarily the mother.

In other cases the care was even being provided to women in the country illegally because the state reasoned the unborn child would be a U.S. citizen when born; so the care should be provided.

The federal government said the state was wrong. It said health care to women in the country illegally had to cease immediately, and set a deadline of March 1st for reviewing the others.

The state reported late Friday afternoon that nearly half of over 5,000 reviews are finished and in the overwhelming number of cases the women involved will be able to qualify for continued Medicaid care.

While the unborn child cannot be qualified for Medicaid on its own, it can be counted as a family member for purposes of determining eligibility.

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/84268127.html

Citizens of Nebraska and the State of Nebraska need to appeal this. If the state is saying the pre-natal care dollars are to be used for the fetus and not the illegal alien mother, then show the citizens of Nebraska where that unborn fetus is pregnant and the citizens of Nebraska can pay for the pre-natal care of the unborn fetus's child -- if not, why should the citizens of Nebraska pay for pre-natal care to a fetus who is NOT PREGNANT????????

Good grief! What a mess!
Someone better define the 14th Amendment real quick!