Immigrant health benefits restored after Md. high court ruling

[MonteSano]

State health officials have restored medical benefits to poor legal immigrant children and pregnant women following a court ruling against cutting them from Maryland's Medicaid rolls.

Maryland continued to fund such coverage following the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996, under which Congress made most legal immigrants ineligible for federal programs such as Medicaid in their first five years.

The coverage was lost last year under a $7 million budget cut, prompting a suit by a group of 13 sick children seeking reinstatement of the benefits. Last week, Maryland's highest court ruled in their favor, sending the case back to a lower court.

"I think the court was clear on what it decided, so we are implementing the changes," S. Anthony McCann, the secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told The (Baltimore) Sun.



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