Ryan Navarro+FollowThe Patient Who Had Four Different Medicaid NamesIn a Dallas community hospital, a doctor told me about a “strange patient”—the same man had checked in four different times under four different names, each using a different Medicaid card. When he showed up again, a nurse recognized his tattoo and asked for ID. He immediately became defensive, insisting he was “borrowing a friend’s card to get care, not committing a crime.” Meanwhile, an immigrant mother holding her feverish daughter had already been waiting two and a half hours because she had no insurance and had to go last. When resources stretch to the breaking point, identity fraud doesn’t just strain Medicaid—it delays care for those who desperately need it. #MedicaidFraud #HospitalOverload #ImmigrantHealthcare #IdentityAbuse30Share
brittney76+FollowWhen Medicaid Loopholes Leave a Sick Baby WaitingI volunteer at a community clinic in Queens that treats many uninsured immigrant patients. Last Tuesday, the waiting room was so packed that some people had lined up since 4 a.m. A middle-aged man kept arguing at the front desk after being told he couldn’t be seen—staff discovered he was using someone else’s Medicaid card. Meanwhile, an eight-month-old baby was wheezing in his mother’s arms. She kept asking, “Please, can you take him sooner? He can’t breathe.” The doctor had worked two back-to-back shifts and whispered, eyes bloodshot, “I’m trying. There are just too many patients.” By the time the baby was finally seen, only one nurse was left on duty. Immigrants desperately need care, but when people use borrowed identities or someone else’s Medicaid coverage, it stretches the system so thin that the most vulnerable patients end up waiting the longest—especially the ones too small to speak for themselves. #MedicaidCrisis #ImmigrantHealthcare #ClinicOverload #SystemStrain00Share
