From Saudi-owned al-Reuters:

Medicaid law softened after groups sue: lawyers

Fri Jul 7, 2006 4:46 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has scaled back a new law so that it exempts the elderly and the disabled from having to prove they are U.S. citizens to qualify for Medicaid health insurance, lawyers suing the government said on Friday.

hmmm. This is a good law, I wonder what ’scaled back’ means. So this is how we change our laws now? When lawyers sue the government and not through the legislative branch? I’m sure John Kerry will be happy; he doesn’t have to show up for work now. Not that he does, anyway.

Here is a classic example of the activism going on in today’s courts which is manipulating the system and changing our laws. I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, does it make sense to provide medicaid to illegal aliens?

The law, which went into effect July 1, requires people to supply original documents like passports or birth certificates to receive Medicaid benefits. Some 55 million low-income people are covered by Medicaid.

This is a good law! People SHOULD supply documentation that they’re citizens! How many would be ‘covered’ if it is no longer necessary to prove you’re an American citizen?

But in regulations amending the law filed late on Thursday, the government made exceptions for certain groups, including those on Medicare and those who get certain Social Security benefits, according to John Bouman, a lawyer at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law in Chicago, which filed the lawsuit seeking class action status challenging the law.

That suit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, argues that the law would hurt the most vulnerable people, and that it violated the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process.

Ok, there it is. The government ‘made exceptions for certain groups’. How nice. Those on medicaire and who get certain Social Security benefits. So…we’re just going to extend free benefits for illegals just like Vicente Fox has been clamoring for?

Fifth Amendment of the Constitution used to get US government benefits for people who aren’t citizens? I’ve never heard of such a thing! Isn’t our Constitution meant for US citizens? I guess that’s rapidly changing, too.

Plaintiffs will now amend the complaint to argue that key groups like the homeless and victims of natural disasters still face significant challenges to comply with the law, Bouman said.

So homeless people and victims of disasters, regardless as to their citizenship status, will be able to collect government money, too. How socialist of them.

“A big chunk of the people we thought would be affected will not be harmed, as a result (of the changes to the regulations),” Bouman said. “But there is still a large group not out of the woods yet.”

How many people pay taxes? I think they qualify as a ‘big chunk’ of people.

All of us paying into the system will be affected, methinks. “A big chunk” appears to me to be all taxpayers. Maybe what I should do is run to Mexico, renounce my American citizenship and then sneak back as an illegal alien. Then I can work, completely tax free, and collect benefits on the American government.

The law is intended to keep illegal immigrants from getting government-sponsored heath care, but critics say it could throw millions of U.S. citizens off the government health program because they can’t prove that they are citizens.

What? So then we should just throw that American citizenship thing right out the window? Greeaaaat.

A brief hearing at the U.S. District Court in Chicago on the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order was held on Friday, but a new hearing was set for July 28 in light of the new regulations.

U.S. hospitals, which on average get 15 percent of their revenue from Medicaid, fear the law will suppress Medicaid eligibility and have also called for revisions.

That’s probably because Mexicans are flowing into hospitals for injuries and to have their babies who can’t afford to pay; and they have no medical insurance. So the solution is to pay for their medical bills with my tax dollars???? Something is wrong here.

I’d like to know if the ACLU has something to do with this.

Tip o’ me tam to Sweetness and Light