News

Aug 7, 2009

Last week, another committee in the House of Representatives had a chance to close one of the many loopholes in the House health care bill that would open up taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal aliens. Unfortunately, by a vote of 28 to 29, the Energy and Commerce Committee narrowly defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) that would close one of those loopholes.

Congressman Deal's amendment would have continued to require that the government verify whether someone enrolling in Medicaid is not an illegal alien. Section 1702 of the House bill reads that States "shall accept without further determination the enrollment… of an individual determined… to be a non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual." Concerns have been raised about whether a "non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual" would include illegal aliens and that the prohibition against verifying eligibility contained in Section 1702 would allow illegal aliens to enroll in Medicaid.

On a related note, one of the nation's largest retailers this week announced support for free health care for illegal aliens. While speaking at a convention of the National Council of La Raza held in Chicago, Dr. John Agwunobi, the senior vice-president who runs the Wal-Mart unit that includes the company's health clinics, stated: "We believe strongly that everyone should have access to affordable health insurance. Everyone." In late June, the National Council of La Raza issued a statement demanding that Congress give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded health care benefits. Last week, an unidentified member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said: "We're pushing to include everyone in the health care bill. Everyone."

For the past two weeks, FAIR's Legislative Update has reported on certain provisions in the House health care bill that would give away taxpayer-funded health care benefits to illegal aliens.Various media outlets have begun to highlight our work on this issue, including FOXNews, which wrote: "In a recent study, FAIR said that nothing in the health care package would prevent illegal immigrants from enrolling in a taxpayer-funded public plan, and that no verification mechanisms exist to prevent them from receiving credits to help with private plans."