Shriver Center Convenes Roundtable on Medicaid Citizenship Documentation Rule

The Medicaid citizenship documentation rule, as implemented in states around the country, continues to threaten the health coverage of millions of U.S. citizens who are fully eligible for Medicaid. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law last month convened a two-day meeting of experts and advocates from Nebraska, Michigan, Mississippi, Kansas, Wisconsin, Virginia, New Mexico, and Illinois. The Chicago law firm Goldberg Kohn hosted the meeting. The roundtable concentrated on the successes of Bell v. Leavitt, the national class action lawsuit challenging the citizenship documentation rule.

The experts and advocates discussed actions that could be taken on the state level to mitigate further the rule’s harmful effects now that the Bell plaintiffs voluntarily had the case dismissed. Organizations representing the plaintiffs in Bell were on hand: the National Health Law Program and Health & Disability Advocates besides the Shriver Center and Goldberg Kohn. The National Senior Citizens Law Center, the fifth organization representing the Bell plaintiffs, could not attend the meeting. Representatives from the National Center on Law and Economic Justice and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities attended.

The meeting covered what had been attempted and accomplished in Bell and the reasons why a national class action was no longer the best vehicle to attack the citizenship documentation rule. Advocates from the states explained how the documentation requirements were being implemented in their respective states, and the roundtable discussed ways to challenge, in lawsuits against federal or state officials, the federal statute and regulations and state implementing procedures on the documentation requirements. The conveners also discussed strategies to change federal documentation requirements to lessen their harm to eligible citizens. They agreed to continue communicating about these ideas and to coordinate their advocacy efforts.