Advocates decry veto of health care funds

The amendment would have used surplus money from the $160 million MassHealth Essential program to provide coverage for 2,500 of the 10,000 immigrants who were cut from the program in August. Currently, only 12,000 of the 36,000 slots in the MassHealth Essential program are filled.

"It's one of the more despicable of the vetoes," said state Senator Mark Montigny, a Democrat of New Bedford and one of the sponsors of the immigrant health care amendment. "I share the governor's concerns about the structural deficit, but when you look at the supplemental budget, there are certain cuts that are unexplainable and harmful, that are not justifiable. At the top of the list would be this cut."

On Wednesday, Romney vetoed $50 million of the roughly $100 million economic stimulus package that cleared the House and Senate and $30 million of the $111 million in extra spending lawmakers added to the budget for the current fiscal year. The governor signed the two bills after eliminating the $80 million from them.

A spokesman for the governor said the veto of the health care money was necessary because the state is facing $1.5 billion to $2 billion deficit next year.

"We need to maintain fiscal discipline to keep the budget balanced and avoid new taxes," said the spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom. "In some cases, that has necessitated some difficult decision-making."

Fehrnstrom said the administration does not forecast a surplus in MassHealth Essential, which was created to restore coverage to 36,000 people who had been dropped from the rolls after previous budget cuts.

Montigny and immigrant advocates said cutting health care coverage to sick and elderly immigrants will cost the state more in the long term. Without coverage, they said, those immigrants will be forced to use emergency rooms for their primary medical treatment, with taxpayers picking up the cost.

The immigrants affected by the veto include dialysis and cancer patients and elderly who need ongoing medical treatment, said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

"It seems egregious on a couple of fronts," said Allison Staton, of Health Care for All. "On the night before Thanksgiving, when we are celebrating a meal done by one of the first immigrant groups, he is turning his back on the frailest of the seniors, condemning them to use already overcrowded emergency rooms."

Until 1996, the federal government provided matching dollars to cover Medicaid costs for legal immigrants. Since then, the state picked up the cost, which this year would have been $15 million. In August, however, that coverage ended when the state said there was not enough money to continue the program.

Among the 10,000 immigrants who lost coverage were asylum-seekers who were forced from their homelands because of war; and permanent residents who must wait five years after arriving before becoming eligible for federal benefits.

Montigny said he hopes legislators will be able to override the veto and restore some of the coverage for the 2,500 oldest and sickest immigrants.