State Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, says he’s just trying to encourage self-reliance and curb creeping “socialism.” Critics say he’s attempting a mean-spirited attack against new legal immigrants, who are mostly Latino.
Christensen, the Senate chairman of the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee, is proposing to reinstate a longtime requirement that new legal immigrants wait five years before they could qualify for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
He says his legislation has nothing to do with congressional fights over reauthorizing and funding CHIP. “It’s a philosophical thing. Do we welcome immigrants and say the minute you get here you can have Medicaid when a lot of our people who are already here don’t?