AppId is over the quota
The ruling said that a 2009 state budget that dropped about 29,000 legal immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than five years from Commonwealth Care, a subsidized health insurance program central to this state’s 2006 health care overhaul, violated the State Constitution.
“This appropriation discriminated on the basis of alienage and national origin,” wrote Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Supreme Judicial Court, ruling that the action “violates their rights to equal protection under the Massachusetts Constitution.”
In 2009, with Massachusetts in the grips of a budget crisis, the state legislature voted to eliminate these immigrants’ eligibility for the program, a move lawmakers said then would save about $130 million.
“Fiscal considerations alone cannot justify a state’s invidious discrimination against aliens,” Justice Cordy wrote.
He also dismissed the state’s argument that the cuts were in line with federal policies to deny Medicaid assistance to the same group of legal immigrants.
“The legislature may not lean on federal policy as a crutch to absolve it of examining whether its own invidious discrimination is truly necessary,” Justice Cordy wrote.
Gov. Deval Patrick initially opposed barring the immigrants’ from the program and worked with legislators to create an alternative — and more limited — program that cost about $40 million.
Wendy E. Parmet, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law who argued the case, said she hoped the ruling would mean a quick redemption of benefits for the immigrants who lost some or all of their health insurance coverage because of the money-saving measure.
“I think it sends a clear message that it is unconstitutional in the state of Massachusetts, that the state can’t deal with its budget problems on the backs of the legal immigrants,” Ms. Parmet said of the decision.
State officials say they will abide by the decision, although they are not yet sure how to pay for the change.
“This decision has significant fiscal impacts for the commonwealth, adding somewhere in the range of $150 million in annual costs to what is already a very challenging budget,” said Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance. But he added, “We will work expeditiously to identify the resources required and the operational steps that need to be taken to integrate all eligible, legal immigrants into the Commonwealth Care program in accordance with today’s decision.”
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