No. of Recommendations: 9
The other poster nailed it. And I have first-hand knowledge of this.
When we brought my MIL from the Philippines, we were solely responsible for her. She received NO benefits of any kind. One of the first things I did was contact insurance to get a medical policy. No dice because she was already over 65. I actually asked "is there a price where you would write a policy", but the answer was "no". Medicare wouldn't touch her because she was a legal immigrant, but not a citizen. She had no work history, so no SS. No food stamps. Nothing. As soon as she became a citizen, she was eligible for all of that. The federal benefit rules are nationwide. Perhaps different states offer benefits to legal non-citizens (e.g. permanent residents), but the feds don't. And AZ didn't. This was about 15 years ago.
I learned quickly that there is a "no insurance" group of providers, including doctors and labs. The labs were interesting because they had menus with the prices for each service specified, unlike insurance-accepting labs where you have no idea until the bill arrives. But I digress.
The talking points about undocumented people lining up at the benefits trough are utterly false.**
**With the caveat that some individual states may allow something, and that's up to the states. But the feds don't.
