Some Face Deadline on Health Care Law

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVARAssociated Press

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of people who signed up under the new health care law risk losing their taxpayer-subsidized insurance unless they act quickly to resolve questions about their citizenship or immigration status. The government warned on Tuesday that they have just over three weeks to show that they’re eligible.

Of the 8 million people who signed up for private coverage through President Barack Obama’s law, more than 2 million at one point had discrepancies of some sort that clouded their eligibility. That number has been greatly reduced – but the remaining cases are proving difficult to untangle.

People living in the country illegally are not allowed to get coverage. Officials at the Health and Human Services Department said letters are being sent to about 310,000 people with documentation issues involving citizenship or immigration.

The letters will notify enrollees with unresolved issues that they still need to upload their documents to the HealthCare.gov website by Sept. 5, or mail them in. Otherwise, their coverage will end on Sept. 30.

Many haven’t responded to repeated outreach efforts. Hispanics, who historically have lagged in health insurance coverage, may account for a big share of the group.

Indeed, two states with large Latino populations top the list of unresolved cases. Florida has 93,800 cases, while Texas has 52,700. Georgia, Virginia and Pennsylvania round out the top five. The letters are being sent in English and Spanish.

Some supporters of the law worried that eligible consumers might lose coverage due to record-keeping problems on the government’s part, or because of something as mundane as letters getting lost in the mail.

“Many of these people have issues because government files are incomplete,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of the advocacy group Families USA. “Many may feel that they have fully complied with what is necessary to get health coverage.”