LOL! not only do they require you to prove who you say you are, but they also look into your financial status to ensure you truly need the benefits you claim you do. A simple google search shows you this. You can't just show up for medicare with a library card. Not to mention that every doctor requires a photo ID with your insurance card before they will treat you. You think anyone can just walk into their state SNAP office and get benefits without proving they are financially impaired?
Tell you what... you get CA to check IDs and make people prove US citizenship and I will give you Native Indians with a P.O. Box. as long as they show they show they live near that P.O. Box full time and are not registered to vote anywhere else.
You don’t “show up” for Medicare, it’s done through the mail. You can enroll in Medicaid through healthcare.gov, no photo id required - or at least when I was in insurance. I just had my physical, no id required at the doctor or the lab.
And this explains the outrageous level of fraud in Medicaid/Medicare. No other public benefits program comes close to this level of fraud. I will note most of it is provider fraud rather than patient fraud (except many times the “patient” is in on the provider fraud). The lax ID practices in the medical community enable the fraud — as noted in government reports.
I think any question you may have had regarding the validity and real purpose of these very specific, strangely variable, and sometimes difficult to satisfy Voter ID laws, or voter registration requirements, you have nicely answered by your response above. Invariably, and without exception, the federal government allows several alternative choices in the way that the requirement that a person prove that they are who they say they are can be satisfied. If we did the same with regard to voting wouldn't that be nice! And sensible too, I might add.
With picture ID cards to ensure that only citizens are receiving the health benefits rather than illegal immigrants who abusing the systems currently.