Democrats Want to Cover Illegal Immigrants in Health Care Reform

Even though Obama has declared he doesn't want to cover illegal immigrants in the reform, and even though the Baucus bill doesn't allow them to be covered, some Democrats are reaching for their base and demanding illegals be covered.

"Legal permanent residents should be able to purchase their plans, and they should also be eligible for subsidies if they need it. Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans. It keeps them out of the emergency room," said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Mr. Honda was joined by more than 20 of his colleagues in two letters laying out the demands. As a generally young, healthy part of the population, illegal immigrants could help reduce overall costs for those who buy into health exchange plans, the lawmakers said.

The National Council of La Raza launched its own "flood their voice mail" campaign last week to put pressure on Mr. Baucus to expand coverage in his proposal to include all legal immigrants and to drop verification language in the legislation that would prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining coverage.

We are already covering illegals to an extent. Under the 1996 welfare law overhaul, Congress restricted most federal benefits to longtime holders of green cards - those who have been in the country at least five years.

But Democrats chipped away at that rule when they reauthorized the State Children's Health Insurance Program earlier this year and allowed states to cover all immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of how long they've been in the country.

I think they should continue to push for this. I know, you're shocked if you've been reading this blog. I think this will be a great focal point of the health care debate. It will show that what the conservatives have said all along about this: it's about increasing the size of the government, it's about covering illegals, it's not about fixing the system. It will be another way to pry the conservative Democrats away from the rest of the pack and hopefully bring down this whole garbage pile they call legislation.

You can find the original article here.