ILLEGAL ALIENS GET OBAMACARE
THE FACTS: The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, and they could also buy into a new government-run insurance plan if Congress creates one. But unlike legal residents, they wouldn't get federal subsidies to help them. The bill's exact language: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully in the United States." Health care legislation in the Senate is also being crafted to exclude illegal immigrants from coverage.
When the legislation's "Health Insurance Exchange" offering private and government-run plans would begin operation in 2013, CRS concluded would be no restrictions on illegal aliens buying government-offered insurance: "H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens participating in the Exchange -- whether the noncitizens are legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently
Now, there are reasonable arguments for and against allowing illegal immigrants to buy government-sponsored insurance. On one hand, they'd be covering much of the cost of their routine medical care and perhaps reducing unnecessary use of emergency rooms; on the other, if illegal immigrants require more expensive care than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, Americans who play by the rules would end up subsidizing those who didn't. (Someone will be sure to dub this the "illegal immigrant tax," and depending on how the numbers work out, that might even be correct.)
If Democrats wanted to eliminate allegations such as Joe Wilson's, they could simply rewrite H.R. 3200 to say: No illegal immigrant can shop at the Health Insurance Exchange
THE FACTS: The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, and they could also buy into a new government-run insurance plan if Congress creates one. But unlike legal residents, they wouldn't get federal subsidies to help them. The bill's exact language: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully in the United States." Health care legislation in the Senate is also being crafted to exclude illegal immigrants from coverage.
When the legislation's "Health Insurance Exchange" offering private and government-run plans would begin operation in 2013, CRS concluded would be no restrictions on illegal aliens buying government-offered insurance: "H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens participating in the Exchange -- whether the noncitizens are legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently
Now, there are reasonable arguments for and against allowing illegal immigrants to buy government-sponsored insurance. On one hand, they'd be covering much of the cost of their routine medical care and perhaps reducing unnecessary use of emergency rooms; on the other, if illegal immigrants require more expensive care than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, Americans who play by the rules would end up subsidizing those who didn't. (Someone will be sure to dub this the "illegal immigrant tax," and depending on how the numbers work out, that might even be correct.)
If Democrats wanted to eliminate allegations such as Joe Wilson's, they could simply rewrite H.R. 3200 to say: No illegal immigrant can shop at the Health Insurance Exchange