http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3166641

Buried in the thick text of an immigration reform proposal from two U.S. senators is a clause regarding mandated health coverage that some hope will reduce costs for hospitals beset with treating uninsured immigrants.
The Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act, proposed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), includes numerous provisions to beef up border security and strengthen penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

It also would establish a temporary guest worker program, allowing foreigners with a job offer from a U.S. company to work here for up to two years before returning home. As part of that program, the workers' home countries would be required to provide them with a minimum level of health coverage.

That could at least put a dent in the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by hospitals to treat immigrants who lack insurance, Kyl said. Federal law requires hospitals to provide care to anyone seeking it, regardless of their ability to pay.

"This federal requirement ... is unlikely to be changed," Kyl said in a statement. "We should not leave hospitals holding the bag, however. Forcing them to bear the costs of the federal government's failure to control the border jeopardizes their ability to provide quality care for all of us."

Currently, the federal government is reducing those costs by offering reimbursements to hospitals for treating uninsured immigrants. But those amounts are usually too small to cover it all the Medicare reform bill of 2003 allocated

$1 billion over four years, far short of the amount needed.

Cornyn and Kyl hope their proposal awaiting a hearing the Senate Judiciary Committee will radically shift the immigration debate in the United States. With better border security, and encouragement for workers to eventually return home to their families, the country can begin to address immigration on a more realistic level, Cornyn said.

"I believe the fact is many of these immigrants have come here to provide for their families, something all of us as human beings can empathize with and understand," he said in a speech on the Senate floor. "Who among us would not do anything in our power, risk life itself, to provide for our families, even if it happened to be outside of our laws?"

- Mason Stockstill