Immigrant, 23, faces huge medical bills without Medicaid
The young wife of a 23-year-old man who collapsed during a soccer game may face a difficult choice: take her severely brain-injured husband to Mexico for treatment or seek hospice care here.
That’s because Jesus Cornelio, a Mexican immigrant who originally came to the United States about 10 years ago on a tourist visa with his family is not eligible for Medicaid.
His family says he was in the process of applying for a green card and received his Social Security card just this Saturday. Cornelio married his wife, Evelyn, a U.S. citizen, in April 2010.
Monica Coury, a spokeswoman for the state’s Medicaid program said benefits only are available to people who have been legal residents for at least five years.
The five-year waiting period exists for most legal residents nationwide, according to Brian Cook, spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The waiting period, he said, is required by a federal law passed in 1996. There is no waiting period for those who become U.S. citizens, Cook said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they could not confirm Cornelio’s status without a signed release from the family…