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Image credit goes to frugal-cafe.com.
From Fox News:
Fearful that they’re losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access, The Washington Times reported on Monday.
The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party’s spines on the contentious issue, say it’s unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they’ve been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.
“Legal permanent residents should be able to purchase their plans, and they should also be eligible for subsidies if they need it. Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans. It keeps them out of the emergency room,” said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
Read more.
***PIN NOTE*** Giving illegals government jobs would probably help deter petty theft too, but it would take food off the table of LEGAL citizens who would then not have access to those jobs. This is just another instance of the liberal agenda pushing for policies that would add additional burdens to an already overloaded system. This is not just a small group of 20 Democrats pushing for this legislation. I live in a small town in Texas and take a government course in a community college. My government professor’s stance on this issue? “I support handing them all Blue Cross Blue Shield cards when they cross the border.” As if BCBS cards can be doled out free of charge. It’s ironic how the left claims this is a pursuit for fairness, yet they fail to take into consideration the hardships that this type of thinking places on legal American citizens. Fairness for whom?
Related stories:
Baucus Bill Would Bar Illegal Immigrants from Insurance Exchanges
Washington Times: Liberals Seek Health Care Access for Illegal Immigrants
Joe Wilson Needs a Breathalyzer Test
I am still up in the air on this. Did you see this article that Chet linked to a few days ago? http://www.newsweek.com/id/215340/page/1
The good stuff starts on page 2 of the article. The basic idea, illegal immigrants are 55% less expensive to insure than the average american, so, allowing them to participate in the risk pool – LOWERS insurance costs for all participants. (this of course assumes they are paying into the pool, not just drawing out). I will need to read some more on this, but at first glance this makes sense. The important information that this author does not provide, what percentage of illegal immigrant would actually be paying into the system, and what are the actual projected savings?
What I can’t understand is why this is such a big deal. I have worked in the health field. The illegal Mexicans in Texas are on Medicaid already. ?? They are sitting in every clinic is town. Somebody please explain this.
It’s simple. Grant access to illegals and we would have a massive flood of more illegals in the country, where a shortage of doctors already exist. However, should we just get rid of the law that makes drinking and driving illegal? I mean, a lot of people do it anyway, so what’s the big deal…right?
Oh, and by the way, the situation you described is part of the problem too. Part of health care reform should be to correct that as well!!!!
I totally agree. The Medicaid offices are almost as corrupt as the Acorn offices, so much is needed to correct the problems already existing. I doubt if the current bill will do anything but multiply the problems and corruption across the board.
Another problem: the majority of the Family Practice Doctors are 55 and up. More than 50% of these plan to quit if any version of this health plan goes through. Many are already loosing money now because Medicaid and Medicare don’t pay enough to cover their costs.
Beth:
I thought illegal aliens were not eligible for Medicaid? Are all of these illegal aliens waiting for emergency services? (I think emergency services are covered by medicaid right?)
As someone who has worked in the health field, how do you think the issue of access to medical services should be addressed for aliens that are here illegally?
Children, I think, should be covered regardless. However, as for adult illegal immigrants…go thru the process and become legal…period. This country was built on it citizens fighting for what we have. You want to reap the benefits of this country, then fight to become a citizen.
As far as other uninsured citizens are concerned, if you go to the emergency room and are provided a service, whip on the social security card and let the facility bill you through wage garnishment over time. If you are unemployed and are not on medicaid, then payments would start up after you find stable employment. The facility get’s it’s money from the person who received the care, government is not involved and the taxpayers are not paying for it either. Should something like this go into effect, I would think emergency room visits would decrease. Obviously there would be much more details involved, but you get the idea.
Chet:
Why would emergency room use decrease? Would it be that people who need care are not getting it, or people who don’t really need care are using the emergency room too much? (or both)
PJ~
Initially, a little of both at first..but it’s not a perfect world and it never will be. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward, otherwise, you do the cha-cha in place and never move forward.
I beleive it would deter people from going to ER for colds, cuts and brusies and just plain old abuse to get free care. There is a ton of that that goes on, we can all agree on that. If you cut out all that abuse, which would have a dramatic decrease in the monetary loss that goes on, then overal cost would eventually come down. At that point, those who do not have the money, but need actual medical attention, could afford it (if they don’t have healthcare) because it would be spread out overtime thru wage garnishment.
A positive secondary effect would be that it would directly encourage all these illegal immigrants to go thru the process, become legal and obtain a social security card for the reason stated in my initial response. No card, no service.
Now, if it is actually life threatening…that is a different issue that has to be address. But I would wager an awful amount of money that only a very, very small percentage of emergency room visits are life threatening.
Look at the positive here. Little government intervention, decreased emergency room abuse, lower cost to emergency service, increased appropriate legalization of immigrants, cost to uninsured indivduals for true emergency care spread out over time, tax payers no responsible to pay…it goes on and on.
It’s a win win for everybody.
I like the basics of your idea. Here is a potential hitch. Cost of surgery and prolonged treatment are higher than most people could EVER hope to pay off through wage garnishment. For a modest middle class family, one surgery would completely wipe them out, loose the house any savings, car etc. For an unemployed family, living in an apartment even if they find work, working 2 low paying jobs to feed their family (say $40,000/year in income) – garnishing at $4000 per year would pay off a single surgery in 25 years. Here are some real numbers – ovarian cyst – surgery – $14,000 – 6 courses of chemotherapy $90,000. Families that do not have insurance, also do NOT have the free cash flow to pay of a $100,000 bill any time soon.
I think starting with a national catastrophic care policy would be excellent. It would only cover costs over $30,000 per incident, and would leave a huge market for health insurers. Then we could use your wage garnishment plan for the rest (if no insurance were present) People who buy health insurance would be buying coverage for the $30,000 gap. It would also become totally feasible to self insure via health savings accounts. – once your account got up over $30,000 you would divert your health care savings into an IRA 401K or whatever savings plan you wanted.
You should really pay attention to my comment, as you are taking this away from my suggested issue…emergency room care. Last I checked, you couldn’t walk into an emergency room and ovarian cyst surgery, chemotherapy and things of that nature.
I am starting to see a pattern with your post. You are so determined to discredit anything that liberals do not support, that you don’t even pay attention to what is being offered. This is typical of the left. Haste, discredit while oblivious to the facts and issue.
But, this is an open forum and you are more than welcome to continue your replies, but you do yourself no credit when you don’t pay attention details and the issue at hand.
Emergency rooms should be for just that…emergencies
Chet:
I thought you were suggesting that people are inappropriately using the emergency room for health care. (non emergency use) I also thought you were suggesting that a social security card be used to allow for care for the uninsured through the emergency room. OK – if you don’t like my example of an ovarian cyst (which certainly can land you in the emergency room) – just use a car accident. The point here is NOT what kind of care you are getting, it is that health care costs are so high that wage garnishment is completely out of reach for big problems. I think your idea has merit – and with the addition of other elements could be part of productive health care reform.
Chet: I like that idea. Maybe you should bring it up to your representative. What do you think about health insurance for people who lose their jobs?
Appears like a lot of xbox fanatics here, I am a fan too and like to play games… my girlfriend says I play too much, but man it’s so fun. I’ve been playing mw2 and halo for months and can’t quit! What would you gamers recommend? At any rate, seems like a cool site, is this wordpress? I’ve made a couple pages myself and ain’t easy. Cheers for taking time to writing this up.