Several institutions had been affected consequent to the Welfare Reform Act. The U.S. health program, Medicaid, has been created in order for families with a lower income to receive medical assistance. After the enactment of the Welfare Reform Act, several people that earlier enjoyed the services of Medicaid could no longer do so.

The Welfare Reform Act had replaced the AFDC program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF). Preceding the TANF program, the AFDC and Medicaid had been in a close connection, with every person benefiting from the AFDC also benefiting from Medicaid assistance.

Leighton Ku,

Teresa a. Coughlin)

Even with the fact that the TANF program and Medicaid are not connected, efforts had been made in order to keep the families involved in the former AFDC program assisted by Medicaid.

Medicaid is now only meant for the families that earn less than a standard income considered enough to support their medical needs. However, Medicaid has issued a provision named transitional medical assistance (TMA). The TMA states that those benefiting from Medicaid can still receive privileged medical assistance for approximately 12 months after having begun to earn a decent income.

One of the groups that suffered the most after the enactment of the Welfare Reform Act is the group...

immigrants. The group had previously benefited from Medicaid just as any normal U.S. citizen did. However, as the new law had been passed, some of the Medicaid provisions had changed. Therefore, some of those that previously benefited from Medicaid assistance had lost that right. After the Welfare Reform Act, hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. have lost Medicaid coverage due to several obligations that they did not met.
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is another welfare program which gave Medicaid entitlement to those involved in it. With the new law, however, the disabled children that would benefit from Medicaid assistance would be chosen through different means of selection. As a result, there are cases in which disabled children had lost their right to receive Medicaid assistance because of the fact that they did not meet certain requirements.

Works Cited

Ku Leighton, Coughlin Teresa a. (1997). How the New Welfare Reform Law Affects Medicaid. Retrieved January, 8, 2009, from the Urban Institute Web site: http://www.urban.org/publications/307037.html

2. Rector, Robert. (2001). The Effects of Welfare Reform. The Heritage Foundation.

3. Welfare Reform Act (1996). Retrieved January 8, 2009, from Internet FAQ Archives Web site: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Th-W/Welfare-Reform-Act-1996.html