Immigrant children won't lose Medicaid

OLYMPIA -- The federal government has backed off a new rule that would have made it tougher to get medical coverage for infants born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, announced two weeks ago that Washington sued the federal Department of Health and Human Services in U.S. District Court in Tacoma over the policy.

At the time, Gregoire called the rule immoral and said it violated the infants' constitutional rights.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C., said all babies born in the country whose deliveries are covered by Medicaid would remain eligible for Medicaid services for a year.

People who are not citizens are not ordinarily eligible for Medicaid.

But under certain emergencies, such as the delivery of a child, they are eligible for certain services.

Before the clarification, the new regulation would have required the state to withhold Medicaid coverage of the newborns until proof of citizenship was processed and approved.

Gregoire said the new regulation would have been discriminatory.

"The Constitution could not be more clear: Babies born in the U.S. are citizens, regardless of who their parents are," she said in a statement Tuesday.

About 8,000 infants are born in Washington every year to poor, illegal immigrant parents.