WASHINGTON, June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bread for the City and eleven
individual Washington, D.C. residents have filed a lawsuit against the
District of Columbia to stop the District's most vulnerable and in need
from losing critical Medicaid benefits, including coverage for medical
services and nursing home care. The lawsuit, filed by Crowell & Moring LLP,
aims to enjoin the District from applying new requirements prompted by the
federal government that could arbitrarily terminate Medicaid benefits for
thousands of U.S. citizens in the District who cannot produce specific
forms of paperwork to prove their birth in the country.
    The new requirements were spurred by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(DRA), which requires the District and states to obtain proof of U.S.
citizenship from all new Medicaid applicants and from current beneficiaries
in annual reviews. While ostensibly designed to root out cases where
immigrants falsely declared U.S. citizenship when applying for Medicaid,
the new requirements will create a severe barrier for patients who are not
able to produce the limited forms of paperwork that are being permitted to
demonstrate citizenship. The requirements will hit most hard those patients
who are physically or mentally incapacitated, or homeless, and have
outlived or lack close connections with family members.
    The effect will be that many of the District's most vulnerable patients
may lose their health care benefits. The requirements will be especially
burdensome for many elderly African-Americans born outside of hospitals due
to poverty and discrimination for whom birth certificates may never have
been issued. The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services is empowered to issue regulations expanding the range of
acceptable documentation, but has so far provided guidance that exacerbates
the problem.
    "The scariest thing about this law is that it takes American-born
citizens who have been living and working in the US their whole life and
declassifies them as non-citizens just because they can't produce a piece
of paper," said George Jones, executive director of Bread for the City, a
community health center that serves many low-income Medicaid recipients in
the District.
    Plaintiffs in the case include a 91 year-old man who is a nursing home
patient in the District suffering from a severe a heart condition and other
ailments. He was born in his parents' home in Spartanburg, South Carolina,
but has been previously told by the Census Bureau that the government
office in Spartanburg had been destroyed by fire and all of its records,
including any birth certificate that it may have had for him, were lost or
destroyed. Other plaintiffs include two ladies over the age of 80 who
suffer from dementia and other conditions, are unable to produce the
necessary documentation to meet the requirements of the new rules, and risk
losing their Medicaid benefits.
    The lawsuit specifically calls for an injunction to stop the District
from applying the new requirements that will arbitrarily terminate Medicaid
benefits. It also calls for the development of a fair process that guards
against fraud and abuse but still protects the access of citizens resident
in D.C. to Medicaid benefits when they need it by giving them a fair
opportunity to prove citizenship without arbitrary limits on the
documentation that will be sufficient.
    Crowell & Moring partner Clifton S. Elgarten, lead attorney for the
case, said, "The rule of law is on our side. The United States Constitution
determines that persons born in the United States are American citizens.
There is no basis in the Constitution for deeming persons who are, in fact,
American citizens to be treated as non-citizens merely because they don't
have, or cannot obtain, certain documents."
    Community organizations, such as the District Columbia Primary Care
Association (DCPCA) and IONA Senior Services have also voiced support for
the case.
    "Medicaid has been under fire for a while, but this birth certificate
requirement would be the most egregious attack on literally tens of
millions of Medicaid recipients around the country," said Sharon
Baskerville, executive director of DCPCA, which assisted in planning the
lawsuit. "The serious legal deficiencies of the new requirements made it
obvious we had to challenge it in court."
    The Crowell & Moring pro bono legal team that filed the lawsuit
includes co-lead counsel Clifton S. Elgarten and Arthur N. Lerner, along
with Barry M. Parsons, Michael W. Paddock, Michael J. Goecke, and Portia R.
Brown.
    For more information on this case go to
http://www.crowell.com/BreadForTheCity.
    Bread for the City is a private, non-profit charitable organization
that provides vulnerable residents of Washington, D.C. with comprehensive
services, including food, clothing, medical care, legal, and social.
Through the efforts of more than 500 volunteers and the contribution of
thousands of community members, the organization provides free services to
over 10,000 people each month. Visit Bread for the City online at
http://www.breadforthecity.org/.
    Crowell & Moring LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 300
lawyers practicing in litigation, health care, antitrust, government
contracts, corporate, intellectual property and more than 40 other practice
areas. More than two-thirds of the firm's attorneys regularly litigate
disputes on behalf of domestic and international corporations, start-up
businesses, and individuals. Crowell & Moring's extensive client work
ranges from advising on one of the world's largest telecommunications
mergers to representing governments and corporations on international
arbitration matters. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices
in Brussels, California and London. Visit Crowell & Moring online at
http://www.crowell.com/.
    CONTACT: Nicole Quigley, +1-202-624-2849, nquigley@crowell.com, for
Bread for the City.