Illegal immigrants would be barred from healthcare aid under Senate leaders proposal
Posted Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 Comments (1)

By LYNSI BURTON

Hearst Newspapers

WASHINGTON — In a bid to win support from fence-sitting moderate Democratic senators, the Senate leadership has included provisions in its healthcare proposal that would bar any aid to illegal immigrants and would restrict assistance to immigrants residing legally in the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs the support of all 58 Democrats and both independent senators in a procedural showdown vote today on whether he can block a Republican filibuster that would kill the health bill.

The result: Moderate-to-conservative Democratic senators such as Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, along with independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, effectively have veto power over the bill.

Like the recently approved House version of healthcare reform, the Senate bill would deny federal subsidies to help undocumented immigrants buy insurance. But the Senate bill would also bar undocumented immigrants from participating in health insurance exchanges even if they pay full price with their own funds.

The Senate would also impose a five-year waiting period before legal immigrants who are not citizens could gain access to any federal health insurance subsidies.

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

"Diseases know no boundaries," said Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association. "The best idea would be to have everyone have healthcare."

Hispanics in the House — there are none in the Senate — are furious. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., calls the Senate provisions "mean-spirited" and "dehumanizing."

Some medical providers in cities like Houston contend that taxpayers would be the ultimate victim of any plan that keeps immigrants away from primary doctors and instead funnels them to public hospitals’ emergency rooms.

"Those problems are not going to go away" unless immigrants obtain access to primary-care physicians rather than using emergency rooms as a first resort, said David Lopez, CEO of the Harris County Hospital District. "I think it needs to be addressed now."

Texas has the highest number of uninsured immigrants in the U.S. Of the 6 million or so uninsured residents in Texas, about 1.5 million are not citizens, said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/1779558.html