Thread: My letters to my Senator and those Active in Senate Finance

I have been following the debate closely and have read the bills on line. Let me say up front that I am totally opposed to any provisions from HR3200 being incorporated into the final Bill. ALL THE HOUSE BILLS ARE BAD.

What really concerns me is the issue of health care for illegal aliens. I know both the House and Senate have stated that illegal aliens will not be included. However let me outline for you a situation that needs correction or illegal aliens will continue to receive expensive health care at taxpayer expense.

The situation is caused by EMTALA(Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act). Currently illegal aliens because of EMTAL are receiving Kidney Transplants, dialysis etc. at US Taxpayer expense.

I direct your attention to this article in the Chicago Tribune on the subject : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 2811.story One of the stories cited is that of Liliana Cruz, 16 After she received a diagnosis of kidney failure in the Mexican state of Michoacan, her family came to the U.S. illegally in 2005 to seek help in getting a transplant after Mexican doctors said family members would have to pay cash in their own country. She is attempting to get this transplant at the expense of US taxpayers.

My question to you how do we stop this sort of drain on the US Taxpayer caused by EMTALA? Shouldn’t we allow hospitals to obtain a patient’s legal status and home country? Shouldn’t we be asking the home country to pay for this treatment and not the US Taxpayer? Should we honestly consider returning them to their home country after they our stabilized? Yes some will die, but is that really our problem? The US is broke and the US taxpayer cannot be asked to subsidize the treatments of people from the Third World who are not legally entitled to be in this country.

This has to be part of the health care reform debate as just saying illegal aliens will not get health care under the legislation will not end the abuses created by EMTALA.

Lamar Smith Spells Out Costs of Speaker Pelosi's Insistence on Covering Illegal Aliens With Federal Health Plan


By Roy Beck, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9:59 AM

Now, nobody in Congress can claim not to know what is going on with illegal aliens and the proposed federal health plan. Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas has laid out the details in The Hill, a newspaper for the Capitol Hill staffers and Members of Congress.



The Democrats’ bill in the House, H.R. 3200, contains gaping loopholes that will allow illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded benefits. And these loopholes are no accident.

-- Rep. Lamar Smith quoted in the Hill

Rosemary Jenks (NumbersUSA's Director of Government Relations) and I have been doing non-stop radio shows across the country about this. One thing that occurs to us routinely is that the host reads a quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying firmly that the health plan will NOT cover illegal immigrants.

To that, I have to say simply, PELOSI IS LYING. And she knows she is lying.

I don't talk and write like that often. I tend to give people -- even politicians -- a lot of benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. But Pelosi and her leadership team have been engaged all year in coming up with deceptive language and amendments to make it look like they are denying illegal aliens benefits, all the while including language that that creates loopholes giant enough to drive 11-19 million illegal aliens through them.

(Read here and here about the vote in House committee last week and then here about the effort to cover up their dirty deed the next day. Also watch my short video from Friday about the subject.)

The costs to the American taxpayer will be incredible, writes Smith, the Ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

If Americans aren’t already concerned enough about the astronomical costs of the healthcare proposal, this taxpayer-funded benefit for lawbreakers should sound the alarms.

Take just the uninsured: According to the latest research from the Pew Hispanic Center, 59 percent of all illegal immigrant adults lacked health insurance in 2007. These figures are dramatically higher than the 14 percent uninsured rate for U.S.-born adults. The children of illegal immigrants are also uninsured at extremely high rates — 45 percent of their foreign-born children are uninsured!

Of course, when it comes to illegal immigration, taxpayer-provided health insurance represents just part of the cost. Healthcare for illegal immigrants costs Americans at least $1 billion each year, not including health costs for children and the elderly. In my home state of Texas, just the price tag of educating the children of illegal immigrants adds up to around $4 billion annually!

-- Rep. Lamar Smith

Of course, Pres. Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have a simple solution that would greatly reduce the cost of insuring and providing health care to illegal aliens:

Their solution is to stop calling them illegal aliens and to call them "legal immigrants" and "U.S. citizens." Of course, the cost to the taxpayer will be the same (or probably quite a bit higher as they fully take advantage of more welfare benefits). But since they are no longer called "illegal aliens," nobody can say the costs are attributable to paying for illegal aliens.

Don't you just feel like you have been plunged into a George Orwell novel?

Right now, millions of people around the world are preparing to move to the United States illegally to take U.S. jobs from American citizens because the Congress won't require businesses to use E-Verify.

If Congress now approves a federal health plan that covers any foreign national who can get into the country, just imagine how many more millions of people will be preparing to move here illegally.

Spending billions of taxpayer dollars to overhaul a healthcare system that provides Americans with the best care in the world makes no sense. And using those taxpayer dollars to provide benefits to illegal immigrants is inexcusable.

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress should not force American taxpayers to provide healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants.

-- Rep. Lamar Smith

I urge all of you to protest at the top of your lungs at all Town Hall meetings of your Members of Congress this month.

If you have Republican Members, protest the fact that the Republican leadership in Congress is taking a pass on this issue. Lamar Smith is high-ranking. But the half-dozen highest ranking Republicans are standing mostly mute. They are not making the inclusion of illegal aliens a big issue. What is wrong with them? Which big-money special interest is keeping them quiet.

If you have Democratic Members, make them understand that YOU hold THEM responsible for the fact that THEIR Party is putting illegal aliens and the corrupt businesses that hire them ahead of the interests of U.S. citizens, taxpayers and workers.

We the People surely can stop an outrage this clear and this gigantic.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

Good letter, jw! It is important that we start pounding on Congress to make sure that no illegals can sneak into this country, and then take advantage of our medical system. The House, in its stupidity, threw out the Heller amendment from this bill which would have denied insurance to illegals.
And when Sen. Specter said he would not endorse insurance for illegals, at first I was glad. But then, thinking about it--if the illegals are all granted amnesty, they will be covered at taxpayer expense.

Originally Posted by judyweller

My question to you how do we stop this sort of drain on the US Taxpayer caused by EMTALA? Shouldn’t we allow hospitals to obtain a patient’s legal status and home country? Shouldn’t we be asking the home country to pay for this treatment and not the US Taxpayer? Should we honestly consider returning them to their home country after they our stabilized? Yes some will die, but is that really our problem? The US is broke and the US taxpayer cannot be asked to subsidize the treatments of people from the Third World who are not legally entitled to be in this country.

I know you are posing this question to your senator/congressperson, but let me make a suggestion; If an option exists for organ donors that let you designate your organs to only go to an American citizen, use it. Otherwise:

If you are an organ donor, rescind that status and send a letter to the appropriate organization telling them that you have changed your mind because of the illegal immigrant abuse of our medical services.

If you're not, write a letter to the appropriate organization letting them know that you choose not to because of the illegal immigrant abuse of our medical services.

If enough of us do this I suspect some kind of panic will ensue, and then it may be resolved.

Great letter, by the way. You go girl!

Please see action item here
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-166365.html

Great letter..Good Job keep on them...

You don't even need to read the bill to know they are including illegal aliens FACT....a congressmen tried to introduce an amendment that would clarify that no illegal aliens were to be covered by any health care...AND

Guess what Pelosi would not allow the amendment to come to the floor and be voted on......

This action says it all, doesn't it!!

Guess what Pelosi would not allow the amendment to come to the floor and be voted on......

That woman needs to GOOOOOOOOO!!!!