Thread: Dems’ health plan would limit immigrant aid

Dems’ health plan would limit immigrant aid
Latinos shaken by Senate gambit to win conservative and moderate votes
By LYNSI BURTON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 21, 2009, 12:00AM

Moderate Dems pivotal in Saturday health care vote

WASHINGTON — The latest loser in the political pandemonium over health care reform may be immigrants living in America, an estimated 24 million people likely to be bartered in order to win support in Congress from fence-sitting Democratic moderates and conservatives.

Just as House Democratic leaders sacrificed the wishes of abortion-rights activists in a successful gambit to win the votes of anti-abortion Democrats last week, the Senate leadership has included provisions in its health care proposal that would bar any aid to illegal immigrants and would restrict assistance to immigrants residing legally in the United States.

The hesitation to include more immigrants has substantial implications for states like Texas, which has the highest number of uninsured immigrants in the country — at least 1.5 million people, some legal permanent residents, some not, according to an October study by the pro-immigration Migration Policy Institute in Washington.

The concessions to immigration critics have shaken Latino rights groups, who have strongly backed Democratic attempts to overhaul the American health care system.

“Diseases know no boundaries,â€

The concessions to immigration critics have shaken Latino rights groups, who have strongly backed Democratic attempts to overhaul the American health care system.

Good - Hope the illegal alien rights' groups keep shaking and shaking...... Get used to it, your hay days are numbered.


[quote]“Diseases know no boundaries,â€

None of those senators represents states with large immigrant populations. According to McClatchy Newspapers, Nelson said Friday that he'd vote to proceed

Lynsi Burton, the author of this article, needs to check her facts! Nebraska has a huge illegal alien population and also a large legal immigrant population. Of course we all know the words "large immigrant populations" includes legal and illegal immigrants.

I don't understand why they say the illegals won't be covered, the Dems blocked legislation that would have stopped the illegals from being able to stop by the ER's and get "free" health care via the American people taxes. So, the illegals are better than covered, they pay nothing into the system.

I don't believe for a second that Congress will cut off medical care to all those undocumented Democrats. They need the votes.

Didn't Judge Napalitano say even if these restrictions were included the Supreme Court would probably overturn them?

http://www.cis.org/edwards/reidbill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" gives the appearance of going further to bar illegal aliens from taxpayer-funded health benefits than the House-passed legislation or other Senate bills. But a closer read exposes loopholes, flaws, and the very tools for quickly undoing whatever merits the Reid measure contains.

The immigration-related provision, Section 1411, shows the elements that may cause public cynicism. Most Americans don't think people who broke our laws to get here, break our laws by remaining here, and who routinely break other U.S. laws beyond immigration statutes (e.g., identity theft and fraud, tax cheating, illicit employment) should be further rewarded for their crimes with taxpayer-funded health insurance. But that's what Reid's Senate health bill is likely to do: Add another reward to illegal aliens, create another incentive for more illegal immigration, and wallop American taxpayers with additional burdens in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, while interfering with Americans' own health care.

Section 1411 requires verification of one's eligibility for parts of the new health regime: participation in the "exchange" that will regulate people's access to health coverage and qualification for the premium subsidy tax credit. It also verifies one's eligibility for relief from cost-sharing burdens and exemption from the mandate that everyone have health insurance (illegal aliens are exempt from the individual mandate). That is, this bill applies verification to use of the exchange and thus access to health coverage, as well as the taxpayer subsidy. But while on-line verification is required, the bill fails to specify that the SAVE system is the verification system used. SAVE has been around more than a decade and is used in most means-tested programs, but the Reid bill allows bureaucrats to come up with an inferior scheme.
Problems arise from reliance on merely checking a name, birth date, and Social Security number. There's nothing here or in Medicaid enrollment provisions requiring an applicant to prove that he's who he claims to be. There's no requirement to check a photo ID, a driver's license that meets the REAL ID Act's security standards, an official birth certificate or green card, fingerprints, or anything that would prevent fraud and abuse. Bet that "Jose Smith" will have his information verified and cleared for taxpayer-funded health care — time and time again, just like the repeated usage of 000-00-0000 as a supposed Social Security number that millions of illegal aliens give their unscrupulous U.S. employers.

There's also the problem of the "flexibility" provision on page 277. It allows Health and Human Services to "modify" at will (read: dumb down) the verification process to "reduce the . . . burdens on the applicant." And the bill imposes strict "confidentiality" fetters on HHS. If an illegal alien is discovered in the verification process, that lawbreaker's information cannot be shared with law enforcement to hold illegal aliens accountable for their immigration and other offenses.

All in all, the Senate health bill gives the façade of eligibility verification. But it's far from water-tight and subject to massive, expensive fraud, abuse, and exploitation. The verification looks to be present mostly to help the bill along in the Senate. It's not likely to be tightened up. Even if it is, the House-Senate conference committee will likely strip out meaningful verification. If by some miracle or political machinations something like the Reid verification scheme were enacted, the administration could quietly gut it upon implementation.