Cruz v. Commissioner of Public Welfare

This appeal involves a challenge to a regulation of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare that precludes certain nonimmigrant aliens from receiving medical assistance benefits (medicaid). The plaintiff, an alien who law fully entered the country in 1972 on a visitor’s visa and who has resided here continuously since then, applied for medicaid in 1982. The Department of Public Welfare (Department) denied her application because the plaintiff did not meet the eligibility requirements of 106 Code Mass. Regs. § 503.200 (1981). After an appeals referee affirmed the Department’s decision,…