Feb. 15, 2002 – Delegate Donna Christian Christensen made her case for improved Medicaid benefits for the territory's residents in congressional testimony Thursday before the House Budget Commtitee and also urged that residents be made eligible for Supplemental Social Security benefits, a federal program not available to the territories.
"It is important that I bring the issue of extending these benefits to the offshore areas before this committee before the budget limits are set," she told the panel.
In a press release, Christensen said that the $6 million Medicaid cap imposed on the Virgin Islands and Guam prevents hospitals in these jurisdictions from collecting full payment for the services they provide, with patients too poor to pay the balance. She said 60 percent of the hospitals' inpatients have incomes below the poverty level.
"We are asking that the cap be lifted and we be treated like the states under this important program," Christensen said.
Medicaid is a jointly-funded, federal/state health insurance program for low-income elderly, blind and disabled persons, as well those eligible to receive federal income assistance.
Regarding the SSI program, she said U.S. citizens residing in the territories cannot participate in the program even though non-citizens who are legal residents on the mainland are eligible.
Because of this, she said, people from the territories who need SSI benefits often elect to live on the mainland, rather than be with their families at home. "Not even our veterans are covered," she said. SSI is designed to help aged, blind and disabled people who have little or no income. It provides cash for food, clothing and shelter.