House and Senate Health Reform Bills Prohibit Subsidies to Illegal Aliens

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
By Matt Cover

(CNSNews.com) – Both the House and Senate versions of President Obama’s health care reform plans contain passages explicitly excluding illegal immigrants from receiving federal money to purchase health insurance from either a private or government-run health plan.

Coming on the eve of a White House summit on immigration, the provisions would mean that some of the 46 million uninsured people living in the U.S. would be legally barred from benefiting from Obama’s government-led restructuring of the American healthcare system.

Obama, who pledged on Friday to tackle immigration reform, will host senators and congressmen at the White House Thursday to discuss possibilities for a reform bill.

The House bill, introduced simultaneously Friday in the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means committees, specifically prohibits illegal aliens from receiving government subsidies to purchase health insurance through a national insurance exchange.

“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,â€