Baucus Healthcare Plan eliminates illegal alien loopholes. La Raza miffed
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
By Carl Braun
Examiner.com
The “Gang Of Six” Senate Finance Committee
|
Senate Finance Committee Chairman and leader of the so-called “Gang Of Six”, Max Baucus of Montana today introduced the “America’s Healthy Future Act” and called upon Senate leadership to endorse the proposed legislation.
The “new” plan, designed to revive the stalled healthcare initiative, contains key provisions to ensure illegal aliens do not participate in future benefits previously provided for, however obtusely, in the House bill. It reads:
Name, social security number, and date of birth will be verified with Social Security Administration (SSA) data. For individuals claiming to be U.S. citizens, if the claim of citizenship is consistent with SSA data then the claim will be considered substantiated. For individuals who do not claim to be U.S. citizens but claim to be lawfully present in the United States, if the claim of lawful presence is consistent with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data then the claim will be considered substantiated. Individuals whose claims of citizenship or lawful status cannot be verified with federal data must be allowed substantial opportunity to provide documentation or correct federal data related to their case that supports their contention.
While not calling for a “Government Option” it does propose “Healthcare Exchanges” or government run stores where insurance can be purchased. In the House proposal, Illegal Aliens have not been prohibited from purchasing insurance through these exchanges with their own money. The Baucus plan changes that.
Legal U.S. residents will be able to obtain insurance through the state exchanges. Parents who are in the country illegally will not be able to buy personal insurance coverage through the state exchange but will be able to buy insurance for their U.S. citizen or lawfully present children.
Of course, most illegal aliens do not need insurance. They have used the hospital emergency room as their doctor, and the hospitals have been paying for this; a factor which has contributed to the closure of more than 84 hospitals, 65 emergency rooms and more than 70 acute care hospitals in CA alone in the last 10 years. That's $8.6 billion unreimbursed emergency care costs in just 2007.
The National Council of La Raza , as predicted, is not at all happy with the new proposal nor are they heartened by the Presidents performance thus far. In a press release issued today, La Raza President and CEO Janet Murguia said:
“We support health care reform and the process of moving legislation forward, but we are concerned that the tone of the debate has put roadblocks in front of meaningful reform. Health care policies should not be dictated by a heckler. NCLR cautioned decision-makers that giving in to the dishonesty of Representative Wilson would undermine U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, and that is what has happened.”
Murguia refers of course to Congressman Joe Wilson’s “You Lie!” outburst during the Presidents speech before a joint session of Congress.
The Obama Administration and Democratic leadership have been backpedaling since the accusation and rushing to ensure that no language, offering benefits to illegal aliens, exists in any current proposals. The Baucus plan further emphasizes the disconnect between what the Administration thinks is in the bill and what is not. That’s the trouble with using ambiguous language in the first place. Before long, even the people who created the verbage do not know what it means anymore.
Carl Braun is an analyst for the Homeland Security Policy Institute Group and he's logged 5,000-plus hours on the border. He has written several books including his most recent on Border Insecurity, “Above All Else”
. Contact Carl at Carl.Braun@BPAUX.org.
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For further information please refer to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
|
