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Health care: No illegal immigrants need apply (wink, wink)
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
11/19/09 12:57 PM EST
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC, was forced to apologize to President Obama for shouting “You lie!” when the president stated in an address to Congress that illegal immigrants would not be included in the Democrats’ health care reform bill.
That’s sorta true. According to the recently released 2,074-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care bill (http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf) “access is limited to lawful residents.” (page 160)
But when Gene Nelson of Numbers USA, a group that opposes illegal immigration, waded through the minutiae of the bill, he discovered that it all depends on what your meaning of “limited” is. “It is very clear that the language of the Senate bill includes abundant loopholes, granting tremendous authority to the HHS Secretary,” Nelson says. “There is no secure citizenship verification mechanism.”
In fact, “the Secretary may modify the methods used under the program established by this section for the Exchange and verification of information if the Secretary determines such modifications would reduce the administrative costs and burdens on the applicant…” (page 277)
So access is limited to residents who make “an attestation of citizenship,” but the government won’t make sure those claims are true if it’s too much trouble.
Nelson says the bill also contains an exemption for families with anchor babies (page 252). So access is limited to residents who merely claim they’re here lawfully, which the government won’t verify if it’s too burdensome, and they don’t even have to do that if they have children born in the U.S.
Furthermore, “The Secretary may take into account the financial burden on providers with underserved populations…(page 1849) defined as “populations underserved because of special needs (such as language barriers, disabilities, alien status, or age).” (page 1850)
So access is limited to residents who make unverified claims that they’re here legally, unless they have children or live in areas without enough doctors because of their alien status or language barriers.
But that’s it. No other illegal immigrants need apply.
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