The New Medicare Requirement

[erpowers]

Next month there will be a new requirement of having to present either a birth certificate or passport in order to use Medicare. Supporters of this requirement say it is only meant to keep illegal immigrants from using Medicare. However, I think this is a way to stop people from using Medicare all together. I am not sure many seniors will have a birth certificate are be able to find there certificate. I understand that even people who are not seniors may not be able to find their birth certificate, but it is much easier for younger people to aquire their birth certificate. So does anyone else think this new Medicare requirement is more about stopping people in general from using Medicare than stopping illegal immigrants from using Medicare?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I've wondered about how you get a copy of your birth certificate . . . .

Obviously you can contact the government vital statistics office. But you just can't get ANYONE'S birth certificate. Only yours (or a relative), and you have to prove you are who say you are. If you are elderly and not driving, you can't present a current driver's license (which ironically was issued based on presentation of your birth certificate decades earlier). What kind of documents would you have to show to get a certified birth certificate?

[Massacure]

3. You need to know what is on it.

the full name on the birth certificate
the date of birth
the city where the birth occurred
father's full name
mother's full maiden name
your relationship to the person named on the record <- Yourself obviously.

If you cannot name all of those things, you are out of luck pretty much.

[bananas]

2. Isn't that for Medicaid, not Medicare?

[RebelOne]

4. I would definitely say that is is for Medicaid, not Medicare.

The government would already have the info of all Medicare recipients.

[papau]

5. True - it is Medicaid-the GOP want to focus on the poor not getting health

care.

[bananas]

6. I bet a lot of people from New Orleans are out of luck

Will they be deported because they can't prove their citizenship?

[papau]

7. New Orleans illegals will be deported only after they build the wall.

:-)

[Nimrod2005]

8. Medicaid, not medicare, right?

[erpowers]

9. Medicare-Medicaid

I was not sure it was Medicare or Medicaid. I just knew that the requirement for one of them was going to change soon. I moreso thought it was Medicare, but it seems that I was wrong.