CRS says healthcare bill would cover illegal aliens

August 31, 2009
by Personal Liberty News Desk

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has long criticized the proposed House healthcare bill for its provisions to cover illegal immigrants, and its position has now been supported by a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

CRS is the research arm of the U.S. Congress, and its study has found that under the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009, proposed by the House of Representatives, illegal aliens would potentially be able to receive benefits under the so-called public option.

It has also established the bill does not include a mechanism to prevent illegal immigrants from applying for and receiving "affordability credits" that would help low-income individuals purchase private health insurance.

"These loopholes were intended to extend benefits to illegal aliens while allowing Members of Congress to deny those facts to the American people," says Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

"It is time for the politicians to close [them]," he adds.

CRS is calling on Congress to adopt clearer language that would unequivocally make illegal aliens ineligible for publicly funded or subsidized healthcare and require stringent verification criteria. It also wants a five-year waiting period introduced for legal immigrants to prevent abuses of the system through "healthcare tourism."

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