A few months ago I wrote a post about a new law denying infants born under emergency Medicaid coverage automatic continuing care under Medicaid. Parents of newborns would have to make a special application to get them coverage after birth, submitting a birth certificate as proof of citizenship. The government saw this as a reasonable demand. I argued, based on my experiences getting a birth certificate for Aitch, that many parents would be too hampered by bureaucracy to comply with this request, and many newborns would go uninsured during critical months.

Since I wrote that post, I applied three times to the government for a temporary tax ID for Minor and have been denied twice, giving me even more first-hand knowledge of how inconsistent government offices are when it comes to applying policies.

Well, it turns out it’s not just immigrant parents of newborns who have a hard time laying their hands on birth certificates to apply to Medicaid. Non-immigrant adults have also had their Medicaid applications denied because they can’t comply with the new regulations (registration required). At least seven states have reported sharp drops in Medicaid recipients, and they attribute the decline to the new regulations.

To increase the level of difficulty, the New York Times reports, “Some state officials say the Bush administration went beyond the law in some ways, for example, by requiring people to submit original documents or copies certified by the issuing agency.”

The article contains predictable anecdotes of surgery delayed, asthma medications not received, pregnant women delaying pre-natal visits, etc. while they fight their way through the bureaucracy: first, locating the right birth certificate, and then applying anew for Medicaid.

It’s hard to believe that the birth certificate is the gold standard for proof of citizenship. Over the past five years I’ve requested birth certificates multiple times for Husband and myself, and once for Aitch. Aitch’s was very difficult to obtain, but I was able to get Husband’s easily by pretending to be him over the internet and paying handsomely for the order and the postage using my credit card. I now have a collection of birth certificates, some original and some copies, some with raised seals and some without, some that look like they were filled out on a daisy wheel Selectric, and some that look like they were printed on a laser printer. By what standard would any government official be able to tell that one was invalid?