Medicaid is the public insurance program for Americans who are poor and disabled, a program that covers 47 million people each year and is still growing. The states and federal government share the fiscal responsibility for the program, with the federal government providing slightly more than half the money·currently about $150 billion a year·and setting minimum rules for coverage (Goldstein, 2002, p.A1). States are free to offer extra services and include more people if they wish. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss Medicaid eligibility, especially in Massachusetts, with reference to differences among states, and coverage for immigrants and AIDs patients.
In Massachusetts Medicaid is included in the statewide program called MassHealth, covering families with children under age 19, children under age 19, pregnant women, people out of work for a long time, disabled people, adults who work for a qualified employer, and people who are HIV positive (MassHealth, 2003, p.1). The adult caretaker relative living with children under age 19 is covered if he or she is related by blood, adoption, or marriage, or are a spouse or former spouse of one of those relatives. Otherwise older adults receive health care through Medicare. Children under the age of 19 qualify regardless of where they live.
Recently some difficulties have arisen in the Massachusetts program as in other states around the nation. Rob Restuccia, executive director of Health Care for All, an advocacy group in Massachusetts, said "We are beginning to undo the expansions that have taken place" (Goldstein, 2002, A1). The state has decided to stop covering about 50,000 unemployed adults, and three of the state's largest drugstores are withdrawing from the Medicaid program, cutting poor and disabled people off from more than half the state's pharmacies. The chains are withdrawing from the assistance program because state budget cuts reduce their reimburseme...