Thread: Illegal immigration's effect on the U.S. health care system

Health care reform has become the number one issue facing the American people over the last several weeks. To say there is general disagreement on the best possible way to proceed, or if the government should be involved in our health care system at all, would be a gross understatement. President Obama has been either unable or unwilling to explain exactly what his plan is and I believe the reason for that is simple. He doesn't have one. In recent days some Democrats seem to be backing off of the single-payer idea, while others are still pushing it hard. Trying to get honest, straightforward answers on what we can expect and how much it will cost has been like pulling teeth.

Lawmakers' responses to questions relating to publicly-funded health care for illegal immigrants have been especially vague, but need to be answered. It has been reported that the issue has been discussed in commitee meetings on Capitol Hill, but very little has been said publicly.

Congressional Budget Office estimates on the cost of the current House bill range from 1.1 to 1.6 trillion dollars for the first ten years, and that would only cover around 13 million of the estimated 47 million who are now currently uninsured. How many of those uninsured are illegal immigrants? Will they will be covered by the government plan? It is impossible to accurately predict the cost of any plan without knowing the answers to those questions.

Also, those cost projections can't possibly include the millions of illegals who are not yet in the U.S., but will most certainly be coming here in the future if our borders are not secured and our immigration laws are not enforced. One of the major reasons for rising costs in our current health care system is the tens of billions of dollars that are being spent to treat illegal immigrants. The vast majority of illegals who receive medical treatment in this country never pay a dime for the services they're provided. That forces hospitals and other health care providers to raise costs. That in turn forces insurance companies to raise premiums.

It is estimated that there are currently more than 6.1 million uninsured adult illegal aliens in the U.S., and more than 700,00 uninsured children who are illegal immigrants. These numbers are provided by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center, and are based on census figures. Taking into account that many illegals do not take part in the census, the numbers are probably much higher.

Hospitals do not track immigration figures so determining the estimated cost of providing health care to illegals is very difficult. According to Reuters, The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates the cost at somewhere near 10.7 billion dollars annually, but calls that estimate conservative.

And what about Medicaid fraud? Proof of citizenship used to be required when appying for Medicaid, but H.R. 3693, passed in 2007, bypasses that requirement. Now those enrolling in Medicaid are not even required to show identification. They need only to provide a name and Social Security number. State agencies are only required to determine if the name and number match an actual individual on file with the Social Security Administration. They are not required to determine if the person providing the name and number is a U.S. citizen, or even if they are actually who they claim to be. How many billions is that costing?

President Obama has blamed doctors who perform unnecessary surgeries, and vilified insurance companies with their "unfair practices" and "obscene profits" as two of the biggest reasons health care costs are so high in the U.S. While those points may be debatable, there is no doubt a lot of the blame rests on the free services we are providing for millions of illegals.

It is also very likely that the Obama Administration and supporters of a single-payer system are deliberately undercounting the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. in order to make it appear that there are far more Americans without health insurance than there actually are to make the need for a nationalized health care system seem more urgent. By some estimates 20 to 25 percent of those alleged 47 million uninsured Americans mentioned earlier are actually illegal immigrants.

There is absolutely no doubt that the vast majority of illegal immigrants do not have health insurance. Most work at jobs that do not provide it. Couple that with the fact that few of them ever pay for the medical treatment they receive and it's easy to understand how this is a huge drain on the American health care system.

It is glaringly apparent that we as a nation we must address this situation. Immigration laws serve a purpose. They are not merely suggestions, and they need to be strictly enforced. I know many of you reading this will say this lacks compassion, but should we wait for a total collapse of our health care system before we act? Many hospital emergency rooms and clinics in some areas are already overwhelmed. Would you like to see the greatest health care system in the world transformed into one that more closely resembles that of a third world country?

If you doubt that is possible then look at Califonia. Many California hospitals are simply unable to continue absorbing the cost of treating millions of illegals and receving no payment for the services they provided. It has been reported that as many as 84 California hospitals have already closed, or are in the proccess of closing their doors permanently because of this problem. When this many hospitals are forced to completely shut down the quality of health care is degraded for entire communities, not to mention the economic cost of the job losses when these facilities close. California is a perfect example of what we could be seeing across the country in the near future if steps are not taken to address this problem.

http://www.examiner.com/x-20909-Columbi ... are-system

The real reform that's needed is to get all of the illegals off of welfare, and/or any other social service programs.


Obama said that illegals will not get healthcare in this bill, he also said that the Stimulus bill had NO pork products in it.