Thread: U.S. debates on whether to cover illegal immigrants in healt

U.S. debates on whether to cover illegal immigrants in health care reform

Xinhua General News Service
October 3, 2009 Saturday 1:16 AM EST

LOS ANGELES - As U.S. President Barack Obama pushes hard for the most comprehensive health care reform in the country, the issue on whether to provide government-sponsored health plan to the country's illegal immigrants becomes a hot topic of debate.

There have been different versions of health care bill in the U. S. Congress. Both of the current House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation restrict the availability of federal health insurance subsidies to U.S. citizens and legal residents.

The Senate Finance Committee bill will cover around 95 percent of Americans, but illegal immigrants would not receive government benefits.

The House Republicans said they would make insurance affordable and accessible to all Americans, but did not say whether illegal immigrants would be covered. It seems that they try to remain ambiguous on the issue.

President Obama said he wants to cover all Americans but illegal immigrants will not be covered under his plan.

"I want to be clear: If someone is here illegally, they won't be covered under this plan. That's a commitment I've made, " Obama said in a speech before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in September.

The president added he strongly supports health insurance coverage for legal immigrants, who currently have to wait five years for coverage under federal health insurance such as Medicaid.

However, Obama also suggested providing a way for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.

"If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all," said the U.S. president.

U.S. federal law currently requires U.S. hospitals to provide emergency care for all people, regardless of their immigration status.

But opponents said illegal immigrants use emergency rooms for " anything from a hangnail to a heart attack" and providing care to the uninsured hurts the finances of hospitals and can push the burden of payment onto taxpayers through higher prices for their insurance.

Even the number of illegal immigrants in the United States who lack health insurance is a source of controversy in the debate over President Obama's plan to overhaul the 2.5-trillion-dollar healthcare system.

Critics accused the U.S. government and media of undercounting illegal immigrants in the country to inflate the percentage of uninsured Americans within those who report being uninsured and make the need for reform more urgent.

They complained that U.S. healthcare costs are higher because illegal immigrants who lack insurance and don't pay taxes drain resources through.

According to the current population survey conducted by U.S. Census Bureau, there were 46.3 million people without health insurance in the United States in 2008 compared with 45.7 million a year earlier.

A total of 9.5 million among the uninsured said they were "not a citizen" in 2008, down from 9.7 million one year earlier. Foreign students and legal immigrant workers as well as illegal immigrants are included in this group.

Latino community leaders and immigration rights groups have been working hard to include illegal immigrants in the health care reform.

"From our perspective, there's a strong case to be made in this country for us to reform health care (and) it ought to include everyone," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, the oldest Hispanic organization in the United States.

There's a lot of different reasons why we should try to reform this system once and for all so that everyone is covered. The more people who are covered, the more cost-effective and the more and better health outcomes we're going to have, she added.

Although politically it's very difficult right now to take on the issue of undocumented immigrants, but "there's no reason why we shouldn't be trying to cover as many people as possible, certainly when it comes to undocumented children," Murguia said.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 19&start=1

The Xinhua news agency? So I guess China is watching this closely so they can ship their surplus citizens here illegally and they will be covered.
IMO, anyone here illegally should have a medical insurance guarantee from the country they came from so that their government pays the tab. No card and we treat your illegal here, that is reduced from the foreign aid we give that country. The treating hospital gets paid by money withhold, the illegal has been cured and as an American, I don't see huge cost increases in premiums or medical costs.

This is a non-issue, illegals and/or newly amnestied in illegals do not deserve to be given health care via our tax dollars.

Originally Posted by ELE

This is a non-issue, illegals and/or newly amnestied in illegals do not deserve to be given health care via our tax dollars.

Absolutely what is there to debate.....it should be just NO!

The major problem with this health caeis: if they make a public plan or any other government plan, the illegals will get it just like they get education. The Supreme Court ruled that education for illegals was mandatory (unless the educational system could prove financial hardship I believe it was)...thus the health care will end up the same. Andrew Napolianto had an article about this a bit ago..on CNN I think it was..