Giving The Country Away, Again

Well, that abomination we call ObamaCare has again bitten us. This time it’s illegal immigrants. The problem of enforcement of those aspects of ObamaCare that Obama hasn’t yet waived or delayed is coming to the fore. Particularly challenging is the verification of the immigration status of those applying for taxpayer subsidized medical insurance.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on April 1, issue new guidance to health insurers, saying that people whose immigration status is uncertain will be presumed eligible for subsidized coverage in Obamacare’s marketplaces while a further review is pending.

From the Registration for Technical Assistance Portal (REGTAP) we get this:

Consumers who attest to an eligible immigration status while completing the application will be asked to provide the Marketplace with information about the type of immigration document that they have supporting their status. The Marketplace will attempt to match the information provided with information contained in data sources used for eligibility verification. If any of the information provided does not match information contained in data sources used for eligibility verification, it’s called an application inconsistency.

If there is an application inconsistency, the Marketplace will provide the consumer with eligibility while the inconsistency is being resolved based on the information provided on the application.

Got that? The consumer is assumed to be eligible while the inconsistency is being resolved based on the information provided on the application. And we all know that illegal immigrants NEVER lie about their status, and would NEVER submit bogus information.

Three questions arise:

• How long will it take to verify the inconsistent applications?
• How much money is currently being spent to subsidize application inconsistency coverage?
• How will the government recoup any taxpayer dollars spent subsidizing illegal immigrants who inappropriately obtained subsidies?

This fiasco goes right along with the Obama administration’s announcement that verification of eligibility in state exchanges would operate on the honor system. Obamacare specifically says undocumented immigrants are not eligible for subsidized coverage in the insurance exchanges. But it’s difficult to see this directive to insurers as anything but an encouragement to willfully disregard the spirit of the law.

Implementation is only getting worse. State portals are so bad that the continually crash, as well as make hacking easy. Meanwhile, the Obama administration basically said “trust us” on portal implementation. Now it’s saying “trust us” on whether or not the eligibility of these applications with questionable immigration status will be confirmed in a timely way. Trust is wearing a little thin. But we’ll NEVER hear of any of this from the MSM, which also says “trust us.”

Will the “gotchas” in ObamaCare ever cease? I guess we shoud have read it BEFORE it became the law of the land. Oh, wait, we couldn’t!

BTW, REGTAP is a government portal through which CMS provides technical assistance and training related to Marketplace and Premium Stabilization programs guidance and operations.

But that’s just my opinion.

Cross-posted at The Pot Stirrer, my very conservative web site.