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New York Judge Overturns Law Limiting Medicaid For Needy Immigrants

A P Kamath

Six months after Sumaya Al Fayad, a Syrian immigrant sought the help of the Legal Aid Society to challenge the 1997 New York State law that had denied her husband – and thousands of other indigent immigrants – of Medicaid benefits, a court in New York struck down the law this week.

The state would need more than $ 30 million to cover the medical expenses of over 100,000 needy immigrants, government officials said. The ruling has immediate implication to immigrants from scores of countries.

"You may not know but there are thousands of Indian immigrants who need such help," said Tito Sinha, an attorney involved in immigrant causes.

Immigration attorneys and the spokesperson for the Legal Aid Society which had represented Al Fayad free of cost, welcome the judge’s decision as a humane and courageous act.

Al Fayad's husband, Mohammad Aliessa, was crippled and lost his speech when his taxi was by a car ignoring the red light. When his insurance ran out, the nursing home threatened to expel him though he still needed close medical attention.

The Legal Aid Society, representing Aliessa and eight other plaintiffs, challenged the law which prohibited most poor immigrants who arrived in America after August 4,1996 from receiving Medicaid benefits for non-emergency conditions for at least five years. Also affected were over 15.000 legal residents who had arrived in America before August 4,1996, but had no green card. Aliessa’s family came to America in the late 1980s.

The Legal Aid Society says there are thousands of green card holders who came to America after the cutoff date. Judge Sheila Abdus Salaam of the State Supreme Court, while overturning the law, said the law had exempted immigrants in nursing homes or suffering from AIDS. But it had denied coverage to other needy immigrants. She called the practice discriminatory.

Elisabeth Benjamin, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society, had argued before the judge that the state should not be allowed to "pick and choose among its favorite immigrants." She also demanded that the state should treat all immigrants and all the residents equally.

The state has about a month to appeal the judgment.

Lawyers for New York state had unsuccessfully argued before Judge Abdus Salaam that if the state was compelled to subsidize or fully pay the medical expenses of all needy immigrants, the Medicaid received by indigent American citizens would have to come down.

Immigration lawyers, advocates for the poor and Legal Aid Society said that thousands of poor people suffering from serious diseases such as kidney failure or strokes would benefit.

Because of the cut down in aid to non-citizens, President Clinton and governors of major states with high immigration population have been urging the green card holders to become citizens.

But advocates for the poor said this week that the citizenship process is not completed overnight and while legal immigrants have to wait for several years before they become citizens, they could face serious medical conditions.

When Al Fayad's case was litigated, the Legal Aid Society helped arrange for Aliessa to receive specialized medical care, and he has gained some part of his speech and partial ability to walk, family members said.

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