(The Center Square) – A candidate for the Illinois Statehouse is working to find out how much taxpayer money is going for medical services to children without Social Security numbers.
Bailey Templeton is running in the Republican primary for Illinois’ 94th House District. She is also requesting documents from state agencies on a variety of issues.
The latest release she secured from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services shows there are 20,000 children getting taxpayer funded Medicaid without having Social Security numbers, 10,000 of which are not even 1-year-old.
“But anywhere between 1 and 17, I don’t think there is any valid reason to not have a Social Security number registered, if they’re American citizens,” Templeton said.
Policy and procedure documents show Illinois DHFS allows for noncitizen children without SSNs to benefit.
“I think there needs to be extenuating circumstances for any type of public payment for someone who’s not participating in being an American citizen,” Templeton said. “I don’t think that we should be paying, or having the tax burden, of every single child that enters our state, especially with the sanctuary laws.”
From here, Templeton said further pending requests are looking to uncover how much taxpayer money is being spent.
“This is Illinois taxpayer dollars, this is not federal government dollars,” Templeton said. “This is coming right from your pocket.”
The federal government indicates Medicaid can cover treatment of an emergency medical condition if the patient meets all Medicaid eligibility criteria in the state and doesn’t have an eligible immigration status.
