PHOENIXΒ β Arizona hospitals won't be required to ask patients their immigration status.
That proposed legislation was one of nine measures Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed late Friday. Most dealt with eligibility for food stamps, unemployment benefits and health care. She said much of what was sent to her by the Republican-controlled Legislature was unnecessary and duplicative.
Overall, the action means she has signed three bills this legislative session and rejected 11.
Hobbs holds the record for total bills vetoed in any one year at 178, which she set last year.Β Β
Among the measures the governor rejected Friday was one that would have required hospitals that accept Medicaid funds to ask patients their immigration status.
The legislation would not have required anyone to answer, and refusal would not have denied them care. But Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said Arizonans should know the health-care cost of illegal immigration.
Hobbs said the bill is built on a pair of mistakes in understanding.
"Undocumented people are not eligible to enroll as Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System members,'' she wrote, referring to the state's Medicaid program.
Beyond that, she noted that federal law requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to anyone who comes in the doors, "regardless of where they are from or their ability to pay.''
"The legislature continues to show a troubling inability to grasp some of the most basic functions of Medicaid, policies that have been federal law for decades," Hobbs wrote.Β
Gov. Katie HobbsΒ
Another measure to meet herΒ displeasure was to require the Department of Economic Security to conduct additional verification of the eligibility of recipients.
Some provisions were quite specific, such as working with the Department of Revenue to identify households with lottery or gambling winnings of $3,000 or more. It also included mandates for DES to check other sources to determine if there had been a change in circumstances, like unemployment benefits, income changes, and moves to a new address.Β
House Majority Leader Michael Carbone said this is what the public wants.
"If someone is collecting benefits while living out of state or sitting on gambling winnings, that is not compassion, it is negligence,'' he said in a press release when the House approved the measure.
Another bill sent to Hobbs would have expanded existing requirements for able-bodied adults to work, saying that if they were not employed, they would have to participate in mandatory employment and training programs.
And another barred DES from seeking or accepting any waiver of existing work requirements to get food stamps for able-bodied adults.
Such waivers are now legal. For example, the requirement can be waived in cases of high unemployment or if there is a determination there are insufficient jobs.
Hobbs said DES already is moving to improve accuracy in determining SNAP benefits, citing the requirements of the federal HR1 approved last year, which threatens states with financial sanctions if the error rate is too high.
"The legislation you sent me would duplicate those efforts and disrupt the operations of an already overburdened agency,'' Hobbs wrote to state legislators. She also said the federal legislation and its unfunded requirements are "directly contributing to significant staffing shortage at DES, resulting in delayed case decisions and frustrated callers.''
Another veto Friday is a repeat of one last year.
It would have required DES to seek permission from the U.S. Agriculture Department to let Arizona prohibit the use of food stamps for certain "noneligible foods.'' That list included sugar-sweetened beverages including soda and energy drinks, candy and confectionery products, and "snack foods of minimal nutritional value.''
"I appreciate your intent to improve the health outcomes of Arizonans,'' Hobbs wrote. "Yet, instead of offering Arizonans more options to feed their families, this legislation would deprive them of the dignity and freedom enjoyed by other grocery shoppers.''
Hobbs also rejected legislation dealing with unemployment benefits. While administered by DES, these are not paid by the state but instead financed through a trust fund paid for by employers, with their premiums linked to how often they fire or lay off workers without cause.
Part of that bill would have added additional requirements for people to search for work at least five times each week to keep unemployment benefits. But it also would have barred DES from paying benefits until the agency has run the application through a number of databases that cover everything from a list of people who have been hired to who is in prison and who has died.
"This legislation creates unnecessary delays for workers, burdens for employers, and costs for the state,'' the governor wrote.
