In Texas program, Medicaid patients give fingerprints

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2647364

.... Thousands of Texas Medicaid patients are part of a new program to use

electronically collected fingerprints to clear them for treatment when they

arrive at a doctor's office or emergency room. ...

Advocates for the poor say that in a time of budget cuts, spending $10.1

million on microchip ID cards and finger scanners is a waste of money and

almost amounts to harassment of poor people.

" Everybody in the waiting room's going to know why 15-year-old Suzie or

ny's 25-year-old mother has to go up and put her finger on the little

unit, " said Austin poverty lawyer Bruce Bower. " There's a certain amount of

stigma attached to this. "

State officials and some physicians defend using biometrics, the buzzword

for high-tech efforts to verify people's identities. ...