Thread: Call for immigrant prenatal care

omaha.com
By Paul Hammel
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
Published Tuesday February 7, 2012

LINCOLN — A coalition of groups is trying to breathe new life into a proposal to restore government-funded prenatal coverage for illegal immigrants.

At a noon press conference Tuesday, the coalition of religious, pro-life and health groups called for the advancement of Legislative Bill 599, which would require the state to provide prenatal coverage through its Children's Health Insurance Program.

Two years ago, federal officials told the state it could no longer provide prenatal care for unborn children of low-income women, including many who were illegal immigrants.

At that time, some lawmakers pushed to restore the services through the CHIP program. They argued that denying prenatal care would result in more birth defects and delivery problems that the state would be forced to cover since children of illegal immigrants automatically become U.S. citizens at birth and qualify for government-paid health insurance.

Some studies say that for every $1 spent on prenatal care, between $1.70 and $3.38 is saved by reducing post-birth complications.

Gov. Dave Heineman opposed the move, saying the state should not finance such coverage for women here illegally.

State Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln introduced LB 599 last year, but it did not advance from the Health and Human Services Committee, which she chairs.

About 1,600 low-income women lost access to prenatal care through Medicaid in 2010. LB 599 would cost about $1.9 million in state funds and $4.4 million in federal funds per year.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

http://www.omaha.com/article/20120207/NEWS01/702089989

We already work like dogs to feed our family. Why do we have to feed these illegal brats also??

Giving free prenatal care, no questions asked, to illegal aliens is why the anchor baby situation in the country exists as it does today. If illegals were reported and subsequently deported when they presented for this care, this country would be in a whole lot better shape financially!

Related:

http://www.alipac.us/f12/ne-advocate...verage-250138/

The Court essentially stated that the status of the parents determines the citizenship of the child. To qualify children for birthright citizenship, based on the 14th Amendment, parents must owe "direct and immediate allegiance" to the U.S. and be "completely subject" to its jurisdiction. In other words, they must be United States citizens.

Births to illegal alien mothers are adding more to the U.S. population each year than did immigration from all sources in an average year prior to 1965.

In 1994, California paid for 74,987 deliveries to illegal alien mothers, at a total cost of $215.2 million (an average of $2,842 per delivery). Illegal alien mothers accounted for 36 percent of all Medi-Cal funded births in California that year.1 A survey conducted under the auspices of the University of California, found that of new Hispanic mothers in California border hospitals, 15 percent had crossed the border specifically to give birth. Two-thirds of births in Los Angeles County hospitals are to illegal alien mothers who are in the U.S. in violation of our existing immigration laws.
Illegal aliens are not eligible for welfare benefits, but their citizen children qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and other benefits granted to US citizens. Based on data collected in California for AFDC's “children only” cases, the California Department of Social Services estimated that in fiscal 1994-1995, 193,800 children of illegal aliens received welfare, costing $553 million.
By not addressing this abuse of the Fourteenth Amendment and enforcing immigration law, the funds that state and local governments must provide to anchor babies amounts to a virtual tax on U.S. citizens to subsidize illegal aliens!