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Patrick Unveils Health Insurance Plan for Legal Immigrants04:41PM / Monday, August 31, 2009
BOSTON – Gov. Deval Patrick revealed on Monday a plan to provide comprehensive health insurance to the 31,000 legal immigrants who were previously enrolled in Commonwealth Care and scheduled to lose their coverage because of budget reductions.
"We must maintain our commitment to the promise of health care reform in Massachusetts," said Patrick. "This innovative solution ensures hard-working individuals and families have access to the care they need."
CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts will provide health benefits for legal immigrants whose Commonwealth Care benefits were terminated starting on Oct. 1. This plan will offer virtually full coverage and utilize the $40 million appropriated by the Legislature to sustain health care for this vital population.
The program's implementation will be staggered geographically over three months. It is expected that a significant number of members will be enrolled for October, and all members of the new plan will be enrolled in CeltiCare by Dec. 1 and have access to the Health Safety Net or to MassHealth Limited for any coverage gaps that may occur.
"I am very appreciative that we are able to provide health care coverage for the entire impacted tax-paying, legal immigrant population. I look forward to working together with providers whose support will be critical in ensuring continuity of coverage for members," said Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. JudyAnn Bigby.
MassHealth, the Commonwealth Connector Authority, and the Health Safety Net will be working closely to ensure that information is available to members with questions, and that individuals with immediate health care needs are directed to appropriate sources of care.
In implementing its historic health care reform plan in 2006, the commonwealth made a decision to pay the full cost for health insurance coverage of legal immigrants, including "aliens with special status." While the governor proposed to continue this coverage in his 2010 budget submission, the Legislature eliminated Commonwealth Care coverage for this population.
Patrick vetoed this provision and offered an amendment to find a way to continue meaningful coverage with proposed funding of $70 million. The Legislature further modified the his proposal, reducing funding to $40 million in a supplemental budget. Given that it cost $130 million to cover legal immigrants in fiscal 2009 and that the governor proposed to create some level of coverage for them with $70 million, it has been very challenging to craft a coverage option with only $40 million in funding. |
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