Dx: Fear Rx: The Facts about Health Care Reform – Uninsured Immigrants
by Alta Price, M.D.
(cross posted at Quadsville.com in Dr Dx's Blog)
It is bad for the country to have one of our major political parties marginalize itself to the point no one can take it seriously. We need Republicans to represent the interests of wealthy corporations and individuals (nothing wrong with success) as much as we need Democrats to champion workers and the disadvantaged. Lack of balance leads to poor public policy.
As if being the Party of “no” isn’t enough to overcome, leadership of the Republican Party has been abdicated to the unhinged fringe, terrified of Obama (e.g., “death panel” Sarah and the “birthers”), nuts over ACORN, and hostile to anyone who isn’t straight, white, Christian, and male. Most of the “illegal immigrants will get free health care” nonsense spread around about HR 3200 is a craven attempt to exploit this hostility to immigrants and racial minorities.
Not all of the concerns about undocumented workers are unreasonable. We do need comprehensive immigration reform. And one common, and I believe honest, misunderstanding is the impression that most of the uninsured are immigrants.
When looking for information on this topic, I found this August 2008 letter from the AMA to CNN’s Lou Dobbs, estimating that 15 to 22% of the 47 million uninsured in this country are immigrants, not the 40% reported by Lou Dobbs.
(Wait a minute! The AMA could be considered a “community” of physicians, right? Maybe they are really…ACORN!!! Eek!!!)
Dr Dx
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Here are some of the false claims regarding immigrants made about the House bill, HR 3200 (you can read the full text of the bill here). The Truth comes from Health Care for America Now, one of the lead coalition groups fighting for health care reform.
“Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.”
TRUTH: Pages 50-51 contain a provision stating that discrimination will not be allowed in the provision of health care services. Nowhere does the bill state that non-US citizens will be provided free health care services. The bill prohibits federal dollars from being used for undocumented immigrants. Here is the relevant section:
House Bill: “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens.” According to America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, Page 143, Line 3, Section 246: “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens. Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
“Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens”
TRUTH: Some American citizens are more comfortable speaking a language other than English, especially in a sensitive situation like a consultation with their doctor. This provision in no way opens the door for coverage of undocumented workers.
“Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).”
TRUTH: Non-resident aliens do not have to pay the penalty for not having health insurance, nor will they receive federal assistance, because they are not required to purchase health insurance. They are not exempted from individual taxes generally.
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