Can Maine Parents Still Register Their Babies For Social Security at the Hospital?

Until the birth of my son, I had no idea how much paperwork was involved in having a baby.

At a certain point, you start to get the same feeling you get when you are dealing with the purchase of a vehicle (or, a house).  Fortunately, the hospitals I have dealt with have always had extremely helpful staff who would walk you through the process of filling out the paperwork.

One of the most important things that needs to happen following the birth of a child is registering that child for a social security number.

In the past, that had always happened at the hospital.

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Earlier this week, however, the Trump administration had issued a mandate that would have required parents to make the trip to one of Maine's eight social security offices in order to apply for a number.

The mandate's requirements would have negatively impacted thousands of Maine families each year, especially those with lower incomes. In some instances, it would have forced parents to take time off work to travel to an office to complete paperwork that had previously been handled at the hospital.

According to the KJ, the administration has backpedaled on the mandate.

The article quotes Alisa Morton, a spokesperson from the Maine DHHS, as saying:

The SSA has just notified Maine DHHS that it is rescinding the terminations of the Maine contracts for Enumeration at Birth (EAB) and Electronic Death Records (EDR) effective immediately

While it seems irrelevant now, no real reason was ever given for why the change was enacted.  However, the change would have allowed for the elimination of the service used to file the forms remotely.  Because of that, it is believed the change may have been an attempt to save money.