The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 68/No. 42           November 16, 2004  
 
 
Colorado cuts funds for prenatal
care for immigrant workers
 
BY MICHAEL ITALIE  
The state government of Colorado has targeted undocumented workers for a cutoff from Medicaid funding for prenatal care. Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), the state’s Medicaid agency, adopted a rule change in September that ends its “presumptive eligibility” policy. This policy allowed any pregnant woman to receive prenatal care while her eligibility for state funding was reviewed.

The situation “had gotten out of control,” Karen Reinertson, HCPF executive director, told the Wall Street Journal. “The federal government has made clear that it doesn’t want people coming to this country to receive benefits.”

Although the state authorities claim the rule change is aimed at cutting down the number of “illegal” immigrants who receive basic health coverage, it is also a blow to working people who are documented residents and citizens. All applicants for Medicaid-funded prenatal care will now have to first apply for benefits. This process can take weeks, the Rocky Mountain News reported in an August 12 article titled, “Prenatal care for thousands on the line.”

As many as two-thirds of the 19,000 women who received the free medical attention in Colorado last year are estimated to have been legal residents or citizens. The “presumptive eligibility” policy made it possible for all applicants to receive up to four months of medical attention, when abnormalities in the mother and fetus are usually detected.

Colorado’s HCPF has cut millions of dollars in services over the past few years in the name of “balancing the budget,” and has one of the most restrictive Medicaid programs in the country. State governments determine eligibility for their residents, and the federal government reimburses them for a percentage of their expenditures. Federal law prohibits undocumented workers from receiving Medicaid except in case of emergency. States may provide funding for prenatal care at their discretion, however, as well as some limited federal public health grants.

In Arizona a referendum passed November 2 that cuts off all public services to undocumented workers. The measure also makes it a misdemeanor for government employees there to fail to report those who apply for services.

Some attacks on immigrants’ ability to receive medical treatment have failed. Protests forced the federal government to back off from a plan to require hospitals to ask emergency room patients their immigration status, for example. And partisans of an initiative in California similar to Arizona’s failed to gain the necessary support for ballot status. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently restored funding for prenatal care that he had previously cut.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home