An unlawful welfare program for illegal aliens may require state officials to commit Medicaid fraud, State Reps. Randy Terrill and John Wright warned today.
"The state Medicaid program cannot include pregnant illegal aliens unless the Legislature explicitly approves that action through law - something that has never occurred," said Terrill,R-Moore. "As a result, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority may soon be committing Medicaid fraud by billing the federal government for services provided to illegal aliens that the Legislature never authorized."
The fraud could lead federal authorities to penalize Oklahoma and slash Medicaid funding to the state, harming Oklahoma's poor citizens.
"If this is the OHCA's idea of an April Fool's prank, the 'joke' is on the taxpayers, because it's entirely at their expense," Terrill said.
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which administers Medicaid, is set to launch a program granting taxpayer-subsidized medical coverage to pregnant illegal aliens on the theory that the child of any illegal alien will be an Oklahoma citizen upon birth. The OHCA program was created through the agency's internal rule-making process and not as the result of any legislative mandate approved at the state or federal level.
"As chairman of the House Administrative Rules Committee, my concern is that the OHCA has no proper legal authority to promulgate these rules," said Wright, R-Broken Arrow. "The law gives state boards the power to enact rules that carry out express legislative intent. The OHCA's rules clearly conflict with state law. If rule-making entities are allowed to exceed their authority, where does it stop? Rules have the full force and effect of law and we do not want to cede the power to enact law to unelected bureaucrats."
Terrill and Wright, who personally appeared before the OHCA board last year to voice concerns, have now filed House Concurrent Resolution 1064 that would overturn the OHCA rules.
Terrill noted the proposed expansion runs counter to legislative intent as expressed through enactment of House Bill 1804, The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007. That legislation terminated most public benefits for illegal aliens.
"The Oklahoma Health Care Authority - an unelected, unaccountable and unresponsive bureaucracy - is creating a new, permanent and unconditional welfare entitlement for illegal aliens without any legislative authorization," Terrill said.
The program also creates a dangerous legal precedent, he said, because it blurs the line between the concepts of "personhood" and"citizenship."
"Those are two very different legal concepts," Terrill said. "While I recognize that personhood begins at conception, the 14th Amendment says citizenship only begins at birth. And it is only with citizenship that I believe eligibility for certain public assistance or entitlement benefits should attach."
The OHCA program could open the door to discrimination lawsuits as well, Terrill noted. "The OHCA program blatantly discriminates against non-resident U.S. citizens and violates their equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution," Terrill said. "Oklahoma doesn't provide free prenatal care to women who live just across the Kansas or Arkansas border, but now we will be providing it to unlawfully present foreign nationals."
Terrill said there is "no hard evidence of any cost savings" in the handful of other states that have adopted similar programs, "nor do the OHCA rules require an affirmative demonstration of any such cost savings."
