No.31 I am afraid your understanding is wrong. I got GC in Jan 2009; thereafter immeiately I applied and obtained Social Security with which I applied and obtained Healthcare(medi-cal in California),say,within 3/4 months. In fact, one of my friends got GC and applied and obtained medi-cal this year itself. Better you please check. If you are senior citizen ( 65 and above), things go faster. True some facilities are reduced but obtaining healthcare does not that much time.