Raves, Rants & Roses

RANT: Our social service programs are in need of an overhaul not only as it relates to illegal immigrants, but to legal citizens as well.

My husband and I recently helped a family member by letting her live with us for four months while she worked through some problems. During the third month of her stay, she was notified she qualified for Medicaid. The day after she moved out, my husband received a letter from AT&T which stated in part, "AT&T Texas has automatically enrolled you or someone in your household in its Lifeline Program." This is a program that offers discounts on local phone services plus waivers on certain fees for people on Medicaid.

I assume that AT&T then sends in a reimbursement request to the state to recover money lost on this program.

I immediately called AT&T and had this program removed from our account. Two months later the very same form letter arrived which required another call to AT&T as well as a call to the Texas Health and Human Services office in Tyler.

After this happened to us, I was left to wonder how many thousands upon thousands of households in Texas have been given this discount that don't qualify for it any more than we did but accepted the handout anyway.

There is something very wrong with a system that automatically enrolls anyone in this type of program without first verifying that the qualified person still resides at the address on file.

So what if it's time consuming to verify the status of the Medicaid recipient. Social Services are going broke because of this very thing. We live in an "entitlement society," and as a taxpayer, I am furious at the thought of people, legal or otherwise, collecting benefits they don't deserve.

Sharon Tipton
Tyler