Social Policy

Catholic Charities Signs Senate Bill

The divestment of state investments in certain companies doing business in Sudan who significantly support the central government in Khartoum will fuel corporate pressure on the Sudanese government to end its perpetuation of the 21st Century's first official genocide.

As such, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston has signed on as a supporter of Senate bill 2659. Other supporters of the bill include the Jewish Community Relations Council, Harvard University, Brandeis University, Northeastern University, Simmons College, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The bill would require the state's pension funds to divest from certain companies doing business in Sudan who substantially benefit the central government, provide little benefit to Sudan's citizens, and who have expressed no corporate governance policy regarding the genocide perpetuated by the government.

Statistics from the carnage are staggering -- over 400,000 killed, another 2.5 million displaced, nearly 4 million reliant on humanitarian aid, and 90% of Darfur's villages destroyed.

Catholic Charities Endorses Policy Paper for Children's Mental Health

Catholic Charities recently endorsed an important policy paper, "Children's Mental Health in the Commonwealth: The Time is Now" written by MSPCC and Children's Hospital Boston. The paper calls for major reform of the state's mental health care system for children. We are also collaborating with the Children's Health Access Coalition (CHAC) in driving a legislative campaign to advocate for the paper's recommendations. The Coalition, consisting of advocacy and community organizations, families, legal and mental health advocates, and health care providers seeks to eliminate fragmentation of the mental health care system and create a more coherent mental health policy. To read the paper or learn more about the campaign please visit: http://www.mspcc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=538&nodeID=1

Lawsuit Filed Against New Law Requiring Citizenship Documentation for Current Medicaid Beneficiaries and New Applicants

As the deadline drew closer to the July 1, implementation of a new Medicaid law requiring state Medicaid programs to check citizenship documentation of current and new Medicaid beneficiaries, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of at least four Medicaid beneficiaries who are unable to provide documents proving their citizenship status. The lawsuit maintains that the new law will incur costly administrative processes and place undue hardship on current Medicaid beneficiaries who have already been declared eligible for the program.

Proponents of the new requirement intended for the law to cut down on fraud by illegal immigrants. However, opponents say that there is little evidence of fraud by non-citizens and that the new law is more likely to affect 3 million U.S. citizens who will have difficulty coming up with the necessary paperwork. These citizens include some of the most vulnerable in our communities, including the mentally ill and retarded, the homeless, those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, and elderly African Americans from the South who do not have birth certificates due to previous hospital policies barring African American women from hospital maternity wards.

The new provision is part of last year’s Deficit Reduction Act, which was signed by the President into law in February. States received guidance regarding the implementation of the new requirement from CMS on June 9, giving them a scant three weeks to prepare both their administrative systems and inform their clients of the new law. If states do not comply with the new requirements their federal Medicaid funds can be withheld. Advocates for those who will be affected by the law and concerned members of Congress have asked for a delay in implementation, to no avail.