You Can’t Withhold Healthcare From Illegal Immigrants

Posted by Enrique on 09.17.2009

Stop pretending...



A heretofore unknown congressman made a name for himself last week when he yelled "you lie," during an address to Congress by President Barack Obama. South Carolina's Joe Wilson offered this assessment as Obama tried to refute "bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost." Wilson subsequently apologized for his outburst, although it's unlikely his constituents would have held it against him. Congressional Democrats weren't so forgiving, quickly passing a resolution of disapproval to further embarrass Wilson.

In fairness to Wilson, Obama lies shamelessly on the topic of healthcare reform every opportunity he gets – there's a greater chance we'll still uncover WMD stockpiles in Iraq than Obamacare being deficit neutral. However, it's worth noting Wilson wasn't moved to heckle until Obama made a claim about insurance coverage for illegal immigrants. Although there's some question as to whether Obamacare would actually cover the undocumented, that's beside the point – you simply can't deny healthcare to illegal immigrants. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

The story so far…

Here's the relevant footage from last week's address. Obama claims his plan wouldn't cover illegal immigrants at about 1:05:



Was it a lie? Some analysts have pointed out that the House bill, H.R. 3200, doesn't provide real restrictions on health coverage for illegal immigrants. If that analysis is accurate, Obama's fib is a lie of omission, which is a fairly innocuous form of dishonesty for your average Chicago politico. But maybe it's not actually a lie so much as a mistaken interpretation of the obtuse legal language congressional bills are written in. Still, no reason to worry – earlier this week, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) said he would include an amendment to ensure illegal immigrants can't participate in the new insurance marketplace, even if they can afford the full cost of coverage. I suppose the amendment wouldn't have been necessary if the original bill didn't cover illegal immigrants, but I'm sure the loophole is fixed now.

Or is it? The Congress is controlled by lefties, and you know how they are – always treating illegal immigrants like human beings rather than chattel. You just know they're trying to find a way to let illegal immigrants take advantage of the wasteful government programs that should only be available to real Americans. If there's one thing I can't stand about lefties, it's their sissy empathy for…oh wait, here's a poll that shows most lefties don't want illegal immigrants to have access to government-run healthcare:

According to a nationwide poll of 600 self-identified liberals and progressives, a majority of liberals oppose extending taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants. The poll revealed that although liberals support a universal plan and agree with the President's handling of healthcare reform, many express concern that current proposals would extend healthcare coverage to illegal aliens and result in increased costs.

Hmmm, maybe the liberal consensus on illegal immigration is more nuanced than I'd been led to believe. Of course, you can make a poll come out with any results you like, but at the very least this suggests contempt for illegal immigrants isn't exclusive to the right, which might explain why no prominent Democrat is taking up the cause of insurance for illegals.

But is there a case for extending Obamacare to illegal immigrants? Why yes, there is. It's not a good case, but there really is no good case for universal healthcare. Still, let's have a look at this web-exclusive article from Newsweek that argues insuring the undocumented makes economic sense:

According to a July article in the American Journal of Public Health, immigrants typically arrive in America during their prime working years and tend to be younger and healthier than the rest of the U.S. population. As a result, health-care expenditures for the average immigrant are 55 percent lower than for a native-born American citizen with similar characteristics. With the ratio of seniors to workers projected to increase by 67 percent between 2010 and 2030, it stands to reason that including the relatively healthy, relatively employable and largely uninsured illegal population in some sort of universal health-care system would be a boon rather than a burden. […]

As it is now, undocumented workers (and others) who can't pay their way receive free emergency and charitable care—a service that costs those of us with health insurance an additional $1,000 per year, as Obama noted. But if illegals were covered, this hidden tax would decrease, further lowering our premiums and "relieving some of the financial burden on state and local governments," says Harold Pollack, a University of Chicago professor who specializes in poverty and public health. What's more, employers currently have a clear economic incentive to hire undocumented immigrants: they don't require coverage. A plan that mandates insurance for native workers but not their illegal counterparts actually makes life harder on the blue-collar Americans competing for jobs (and railing against immigrants) because it means that hiring them will cost more than hiring a recent transplant from Mexico City.

That's all well and good in theory, and government programs always work in theory – it's in the real world they get cocked up. The first point that illegal immigrants are healthier than average and thus would be a "boon" to the system exposes the inequitable premise of universal healthcare – younger, healthier (and typically less wealthy) people are forced into buying health insurance they might otherwise forgo in order to subsidize the healthcare costs of older (relatively wealthier) people. That may have a nice "social justice" ring to it, but it amounts to the government using coercion to limit our choices. There are many good reasons a person might choose not to buy health insurance, one of which is that he/she is between jobs and only uninsured temporarily. Rather than mandating health insurance for everyone – with a stiff penalty for people who refuse to be forced to buy something they don't want – one goal of healthcare reform should be to make insurance portable.

As for the argument about employers' incentive to hire illegals, there are two ways to deal with that. First, make it easier for low-skill workers to immigrate to the U.S. legally. The current process of legal immigration takes several years, and is too complicated and costly for someone who is only qualified to do blue-collar work. Our current immigration laws create an incentive for people to come here illegally, and they should be changed. Second, eliminate state and federal minimum wage requirements so that all workers can compete equally based on their skills. Arbitrary minimum wage laws price low-skill workers out of the entry-level job market, and create incentives for employers to hire the undocumented. Those may be unpopular solutions, but they're no less radical than advocating a partial or total government takeover of healthcare, which has always been the goal of Democrat-led reform efforts.

Regardless of the specifics of whatever healthcare reform bill eventually comes out of Congress, there is no reasonable argument for excluding its benefits from illegal immigrants. You can't withhold health insurance from illegals anymore than you can refuse to treat a car accident victim in an emergency room because he/she doesn't have a green card. That's the implicit consequence of what the Joe Wilsons of the world advocate, and they should be held to account. Does Joe Wilson really expect doctors to start denying life-saving medical services to uninsured illegal immigrants? It must be on his mind, since he wasn't moved to outburst until the prospect of illegals receiving coverage was raised.

If patriotic Americans like Joe Wilson are concerned about undocumented workers placing an undue burden on hospital emergency rooms, they should advocate market-based healthcare reforms that would reduce the cost of insurance for everyone. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote an infamous op-ed on that very subject. I appreciate Wilson's opposition to Obamacare, but the best arguments against government-run healthcare are because it's too expensive, it will stifle innovation, and it will reduce our choices – not because illegal immigrants might get in on it.