Crackdown Proposed to Prevent Illegal Immigrants From Obtaining Medicare

By Robert Pear, New York Times
March 3, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is planning new steps to prevent people in the country illegally from obtaining Medicare after finding that tens of thousands were improperly receiving benefits.

In President Obama’s budget for 2015, to be unveiled on Tuesday, and in new regulations, the administration proposes to remove illegal immigrants from the Medicare rolls and explicitly require citizenship or lawful presence in the United States as a condition of getting Medicare.

Under a 1996 law, the administration said, immigrants are generally ineligible to receive federal benefits if they are “unlawfully present in the United States.” But, officials said, many illegal immigrants have received benefits because the Medicare agency did not update its rules or policies to carry out the restrictions imposed by Congress. [...]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/us/politics/crackdown-proposed-to-prevent-illegal-immigrants-from-obtaining-medicare.html