Obamacare Backfires – 400,000 Immigrants Lose Benefits

With tens of thousands of “lucky” Syrian immigrants due to arrive on American shores, it appears these hope-full refugeese may face life in the US is not as ‘free’ as they hoped. As AP reports, new government procedures have caused more than 400,000 current immigrants to lose healthcare coverage they received under Obamacare this year. The change in procedure shortens the timeframe during which foreign-born citizens can resolve eligibility issues, which has caused 423,000 people to lose their state-sponsored benefits – more than four times more than last year.
As AP reports, the number of coverage terminations could actually be higher. The 423,000 figure only represents states served by the federal health insurance market. That does not include immigrant-rich California and New York, which run their own insurance exchanges.
The Obama administration says it is following the letter of the law, and this year that means a shorter time frame for resolving immigration and citizenship issues. But advocates say the administration’s system for verifying eligibility is seriously flawed, and consumers who are legally entitled to benefits are paying the price.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/14/2015.