Senate Bill Limits Health-Care Options for Immigrants

Mark Osmond
November 23, 2009

Some immigrants may have fewer health care options under the Senate health care bill. (AP Photo)

When it comes to healthcare reform, coverage of undocumented immigrants is a political third-rail. But under a new Senate bill, legal immigrants could find themselves with fewer options as well. Before gaining the votes Saturday night to bring the health care debate to the Senate floor, Democrats made significant changes to a House bill, including provisions to limit the availability of new medical plans for both legal and illegal immigrants. The revisions could help win the votes of independent Senator Joe Lieberman (CT) and fence-sitting Democrats like Ben Nelson (NE), Blanche Lincoln (AK) and Mary Landrieu (LA), who together essentially have veto power over the bill. Yet Hispanic lawmakers say provisions in a Senate health care bill to restrict immigrants’ medical coverage options are a lose-lose policy for citizens and immigrants alike. The Senate measures, which Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) calls “dehumanizing,” will also come at a cost to U.S. taxpayers and insurance policyholders, caution members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus.

The House bill spelled out that undocumented immigrants would be ineligible for federal medical care subsidies. Still, all consumers could have purchased coverage in exchanges with their own funds. The Senate bill bars illegal immigrants from the insurance pools entirely. Ever since Sen. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) now-infamous “You lie!” outburst during President Barack Obama’s September 10 healthcare address, Democrats have worked to assure the public that their plan will not funnel tax dollars to illegal immigrants. Excluding the undocumented from the new healthcare infrastructure may lessen the likelihood of the reform’s derailment, reports HispanicBusiness.com.

But the Senate bill goes a step further: The new measures impose a five-year waiting period before legal non-citizens can access federal subsidies. The House bill made these funds available to some low-income legal residents. An October 2009 report by the Migration Policy Institute found that, of the roughly 12 million legal permanent residents in the United States, more than a quarter of them are uninsured. Over a million of those legal immigrants would find themselves left out of Medicaid coverage or insurance subsidies if the five-year period remains on the books.

Hispanic Congressional Caucus members say these provisions may save coverage dollars, but taxpayers and insurance policyholders will face extra emergency care costs. A 2008 study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that taxpayers fork the bill for 75 percent of total uncompensated care, which equates to $43 billion annually. Research by Families USA puts the total amount of uncompensated care costs at $73 billion a year. Their report finds that government and charity pays $30 billion of this amount, while the remaining $43 billion is passed on to insurance policyholders.

Learn More:

• Access the Senate health care bill.
• The New York Times offers a breakdown on how the Senate and House bills compare  on key issues.
• President Obama’s speech on September 2009 health care reform speech
• Check out a PBS timeline of the health care crisis.

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