Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996, new legal immigrants to the United States are barred from Medicaid benefits for five years from arrival. Because private insurance companies do not allow an elderly dependent to be named on a working offspring’s policy, there is a growing number of elderly without any health insurance. Thus, the aged with acute and chronic medical problems are forced to use emergency rooms and clinics for the uninsured. These patients are often hospitalized for diseases that can normally be controlled with routine and regular care. Not only can these immigrants not afford to seek medical advice, but they cannot afford the prescribed medications. In New York, this class of patient is placing a burden on the state’s fund for the medically uninsured. Because most of today’s efforts to define the uninsured focus on children and the working population, the uninsured elderly have been all but ignored. This project is among the first to define this specific population: How many are there? What countries do they come from? Where do they live? What is their cost to New York State?
Learning Objectives: To define the demographic of New York State's uninsured elderly
Keywords: Medicaid, Elderly
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