Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea

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73. No, you don't

A 2007 primer on guidelines that states:

Categorical eligibility
In order to secure Medicaid eligibility, a person must fall into a statutorily recognized “category” or “eligibility group.” There are six broad coverage groups: children, pregnant women, adults in families with dependent children, people with disabilities (adults and children), persons who are blind, and older persons.

Not a single person outside of those categories was eligible, and most states made no effort to provide those services to even those who fell into the existing categories.

Look at the California program's limitations.

The reason for the expansion was to extend Medicaid to all low-income Americans.

In fact, federal workers' children and legal immigrants were also excluded from Medicaid/CHIP until 2009.

Until now, legal immigrants have generally been barred from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years after they enter the United States. States will now be able to cover those immigrants without the five-year delay.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05health.html

Low-income state workers begin to gain access to Children’s Health Insurance Program

By Sarah Barr

At least six states have opened their Children’s Health Insurance Program to the kids of low-income state employees, an option that was prohibited until the passage of the 2010 health-care law.

This relatively small step has as its backdrop years of debate over the program, known as CHIP, including concerns that it encourages states — and consumers — to replace private insurance with taxpayer-subsidized coverage.

Now, as a result of the policy change, families of lower-income state workers who have struggled to pay for family coverage can qualify for the program. CHIP, which is jointly financed by the states and the federal government, provides coverage to the uninsured children of families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance.

The federal government had closed that option to most states when CHIP was established in 1997, because of concerns that it might be an easy way for financially strapped states to shift the costs of some public-employee health benefits to the federal government. Federal employees were allowed to enroll their children.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2011/11/04/gIQAeDvotM_story.html