It appears that the Rick Perry administration is adamant that anyone who serves as a healthcare navigator, whose duties entail helping people obtain healthcare, pass through an immigration status check first.
Authorities in Texas have proposed a set of new rules for navigators that would require a wide range of completely unnecessary information.
For a party that has gone to such great lengths to hype privacy concerns under Obamacare, Republicans in Texas seem to be going out of their way to violate your privacy in every way possible, going so far as to scrutinize your “financial responsibility” if you wish to help other people enroll in Medicaid. And while background checks are fairly routine, fingerprinting certainly isn’t.
But let’s be real — no one will care after they read the first requirement listed. Because invasions of privacy are okay as long as they’re directed at those people. You know the ones.
The new rules don’t stop there, however.
If this report from the Washington Post is accurate, these rules could only be described as asinine.
Navigators would be prohibited from charging for their services and from recommending specific health benefit plans to consumers. The proposed rules would also restrict navigators from providing advice on the substantive benefits or comparative benefits of different health plans, the department said.
Navigators in Texas would also be required to take 40 hours of training in addition to the training they already receive.
It’s obvious that the goal here is to scare people away from performing a service for members of the community and, failing that, render the position ineffectual.
This is unequivocally mean-spirited and intentionally-bad policy.
(h/t TPM)