Health Care of Illegal Immigrants is Not Our Responsibility

Published: Thu 10 Dec 2009

Donald Chase

When Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina famously shouted "You lie!" at President Obama during his speech to Congress in September, he officially, albeit uncivilly, threw down the gauntlet on the issue of illegal immigrant health care. Wilson's outburst marked the beginning of one of many impassioned debates over the health care reform bill. President Obama claimed that his health plan would not offer care to illegal immigrants, Rep. Wilson took objection, and an epic battle has ensued, bitterly dividing even the most like-minded politicians.

At the heart of the issue is this: should American taxpayers have to bankroll the health care of those who are in this country illegally? Absolutely not. Extending medical benefits or the option of such benefits to people who have no right to be in the United States is unmerited and would make the already staggering cost of the health care overhaul billions of dollars larger. What's more, the inclusion of health care for illegal immigrants in the bill will more than likely bring its progress to a screeching halt, thwarting reform that stands to benefit hundreds of millions in the interest of a handful of interlopers.

To be clear, neither the House's nor the Senate's plan provides federal subsidies for illegal immigrants to purchase health insurance. However, President Obama's original plan and the House plan do permit illegals to purchase health insurance with their own money through newly proposed buying marketplaces known as exchanges. The Senate's version of the health care reform bill, however, bars illegal immigrants from buying from the health insurance exchange at all.

After the national furor caused by Rep. Wilson's heckle, the White House quickly saw the unpopularity and potentially devastating political consequences of allowing illegals to shop the insurance exchange. President Obama and the White House immediately recanted, changing their proposal to exclude illegals from buying through the exchange even with their own money.

The Senate and President Obama, the second time around, have acted in accordance with the wishes of the American people on the issue of health care for illegal immigrants. In fact, according to a Rasmussen poll conducted in June of 2009, 80 percent of Americans oppose the inclusion of illegal aliens in a national healthcare plan subsidized by taxpayers. The overwhelming majority of Americans see what so many left-leaning politicians cannot see-extending health benefits to illegal aliens is a burden that the United States is not obligated to bear, nor is the country in any position to absorb the cost of such a provision.

Everyone deserves the right to emergency medical care in life-threatening situations, on that we can all agree. But no moral or legal obligation exists that mandates access to a full range of medical services for every illegal alien in the United States. Doing so would bankrupt the nation and encourage even more illegal aliens to flood the U.S. and drain the country of its resources. Currently, medical care for illegal immigrants already costs taxpayers $11 billion per year. Extending coverage to illegals would raise this figure to $40 billion by the conclusion of the next decade.

This burden would either rack up the already burgeoning federal deficit or raise the cost of health care for legal, taxpaying residents of the U.S.-both of which Congress and President Obama have promised will not happen. Let's hope that congressional leaders and the president keep those promises by keeping illegal immigrants out of the health care reform debate, if for no other reason than to maximize the bill's chance of survival.