Chad asked:

After less than eight months in office, President Barack Obama’s administration is under serious scrutiny by some leading immigrant advocates.

As the legislative drive for health care insurance reform picks up steam, pro-immigrant groups are increasingly alarmed by proposals that target both documented and undocumented resident of the US.

In a telephonic press conference September 16, Latino rights, religious and political leaders blasted policy ideas circulating around the White House and Capitol Hill as not only an attack on the immigrant community

but a threat to public health as well.

“We’ve been deeply disturbed by developments in the health care debate and the treatment of immigrants in it,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the Washington, D.C-based Americas Voice immigrant advocacy organization.

Sharry criticized Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana), President Obama and Democrats for bending over backwards to accommodate political opponents, especially Republicans like shouting South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, who “demonize immigrants.”

Sharry and other pro-immigrant leaders said they were deeply concerned by measures unveiled in the Senate Finance Committee and in other quarters on Capitol Hill that would exclude immigrants from participating in an insurance exchange even with their own money, prevent children of undocumented residents from getting coverage, probe the residency status of emergency room patients, and make verification of residency status an expanded, cumbersome process for both citizens and non-citizens alike.

According to Eric Rodriguez, vice-president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) an estimated 7 of 28 million legal immigrants do not have health insurance.

Under the plan released by Senator Baucus today, undocumented immigrants, who will be virtually barred from obtaining any kind of health insurance at all, would face fines of $950 and upwards if they managed to obtain any sort of emergency treatment.

US Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) voiced dismay that the White House was considering keeping many immigrants out of the insurance exchange, especially after Gutierrez and other members of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus agreed that no public monies or tax credits could be used by undocumented residents in a new health insurance reform scheme.

Gutierrez contended that prohibiting undocumented residents from being in the exchange even with their own cash could result in masses of people losing their health insurance coverage.

“What about millions of undocumented workers who have health care through their employers?” Gutierrez asked. “Are they going to lose their benefits?”

“Health care policies should not be dictated by a heckler,” said NCLR President Janet Murguia, in a separate statement also made on September 16. Despite some improvements in the plan announced by Sen. Baucus,

Murguia warned that the legislation coming out of the Senate Finance Committee had the potential to “drive up costs, leave people uncovered and threaten public health.”

Kevin Appleby, director of migrant policy for the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, said that the Church, one of the largest health care providers in the country, often provides treatment to immigrants. The migrant

advocate characterized the denial of health care to sick people as a “fool-hardy” and “mean-spirited” policy. Asserting that the Obama Administration had “capitulated” to anti-immigrant forces, Appleby said

that elected officials had sacrificed public health care on the altar on politics.

Rev. Luis Cortes, president of Esperanza USA, said that it wasn’t too long ago when widespread concern surfaced about the H1N1 virus, but that current proposals on the table would jeopardize people in dire need of health care.

Both political parties, Cortes contended, are “running the fastest to see who is the harshest.” Judging looming actions by Congress and the White House, as “morally punishable by Christian scripture,” Cortes said that the political price could be high for Democrats as well as Republicans. Adding that the immigrant community was once hopeful of the Democrats, Cortes said that local elections would have to be examined “one-by-one” in the future.

Numerous analysts consider New American voters, immigrants and their children, a key voting bloc that swept the Democrats into the White House and Congress last year. Many pro-immigrant groups are growing increasingly frustrated by the pace of immigration reform promised by presidential candidate Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign.

Speaking to reporters, Rep. Gutierrez recalled how the Latino community was inspired by Obama’ candidacy, and took to heart the fellow Illinois Democrat’s pledge to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows and on to the path of legalization. “That’s the President I voted for, not the one who says you cannot have health care,” Gutierrez said.

The longtime Latino political leader and other participants of the September 16 press conference called for the end of “wedge” politics and the passage of comprehensive immigration reform.

Jerry Erickson asked:


Column: Immigration and the health care debate

Jerry Erickson

Published: September 2, 2009

You’ve likely read by now that immigration issues have become part of the national dialogue in the health care reform debate. The primary issue concerns who will benefit if a national plan is put in place. It’s not difficult to conclude that many health care reform advocates hoped that President Obama would deal with immigration first, and then tackle the equally explosive issue of national health care. 

The reason is clear. Providing free medical care to illegal immigrants is just something that hasn’t won much support on Main Street. Without first resolving the immigration debate, many thought that health care reform could go down in flames because the public would simply not support illegal immigrants receiving free medical care. The solution: Pass reform laws that provide illegal immigrants with a lawful status and the health care concern becomes less of an issue.

However, as we’ve seen, it didn’t quite happen that way. The administration decided to roll up its sleeves and come out swinging on the health care issues first.

There has been some misunderstanding as to who will be afforded coverage if universal care is approved. In terms of proposed legislation, House bill, H.R. 3200, excludes from coverage those persons who are not legal residents of the United States. Section 246 of the bill provides:

“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

Congressman John Hall (D-NY) states on his Web site via, a “myths vs. facts” page, that the main healthcare bill in the House of Representatives specifically excludes illegal immigrants from coverage:

“MYTH: HR 3200 subsidizes health insurance for illegal aliens.

FACT: HR 3200 explicitly prohibits illegal aliens from receiving any Federal dollars to subsidize health insurance. ‘Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,’ is the direct quote found in

 

 

 

Section 246. Section 242 also explicitly limits eligibility for subsidies to individuals who are lawfully present in the US. Some opponents are distorting a provision in this section that ensures that all of the income earned by members of a family is counted for the purpose of determining eligibility for subsidies, to falsely suggest that illegal aliens in a family would be eligible. This is a phony and a blatantly wrong reading of HR 3200.”

President Obama has also taken the opportunity to be clear in terms of who is going to benefit if health care reform is passed. The president has recently confirmed that it is not his administration’s intent to offer health care to illegal immigrants. During a recent interview as a guest on Michael Smerconish’s radio show last week, President Obama said:

“None of the bills that have been voted on in Congress, and none of the proposals coming out of the White House propose giving coverage to illegal immigrants — none of them,” he said. “That has never been on the table; nobody has discussed it. So everybody who is listening out there, when you start hearing that somehow this is all designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants, that is simply not true and has never been the case.”

The president also said during the Smerconish radio show that:

“I think there is a basic standard of decency where if somebody is in a death situation or a severe illness, that we’re going to provide them emergency care. But nobody has talked about providing health insurance to illegal immigrants. I want to make that absolutely clear.”

Immigration reform has yet to be taken up by the White House, but that fight is on the horizon. However, in the present health care debate, it is clear that illegal immigrants will not benefit from any health care reform that gains approval. This is one issue which should no longer cloud the health care debate.

Jerry Erickson is the managing partner of Szabo, Zelnick, & Erickson, P.C. (www.szelaw.com), in Woodbridge, Virginia.  He is the senior attorney in the firm’s Business Immigration Section. He has practiced law for over 20 years and represents clients in numerous complex areas of immigration law. He can be reached at jerickson@szelaw.com or (703) 494-7171.

 

The above information is provided for informational purposes only.  The information should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Szabo, Zelnick & Erickson, P.C. law firm or establish an attorney-client relationship with any of its attorneys.  An attorney-client relationship with our firm is only created by signing a written agreement with our firm.

 

 

 

Bobby Parrish asked:


Recently, on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, said we have the best health care system in the world. I have heard this more than once from people who should know better. It seems like a battle cry from the right. Unfortunately, people, being the sheep we are, believe this BS without ever checking the facts. (Maybe that is what the purveyors of these lies are hoping for).

Now let me say here that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but they are not entitled to make up his or her own facts.

So with that in mind, here are some facts which can be backed up simply by spending a few minutes on the computer. (But who wants to waste time fact checking when all one has to do is lie with authority). Heaven forbid that reform opponents actually check facts!  The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in overall health system (above Slovenia but below Costa Rica). We are 72nd in level of health, 24th in life expectancy, 32nd in health distribution, 1st in responsiveness (lots of emergency rooms), 19th in child well-being, 37thin infant mortality land 54thin fairness in financial contributions. Does that sound like the best system in the world. And to achieve these poor levels of care, we spend more per capita that any country and more of our gross national product than  any place on earth except the Marshall Islands. Sounds like the best system in the world to me, NOT!

Another tactic the anti-reformers like to use is to say they don’t want a bureaucrat deciding what care we get. All insurance companies have a bureaucrat who is only concerned about the company’s bottom line. They decide if a procedure or a medication will be covered. Why do you think the doctors have to call for a pre-authorization? More BS from the right.

Another question, why do you think the Insurance Companies are against a government run plan? They would have to, horror of horrors, compete for your business. Oh, and to answer the critics who think the government can’t run a health care program, who runs the military health care system? It has some flaws, of course, just like any other system, but I have never met a military family who was not satisfied with their level of care.  Another anti-reform statement put to rest.

Here’s another good one! Keep the government’s hands out of my medicare! Huh???? If this is not a stupid statement, I’ve never heard one. Who do you think is  running medicare now?

The Republicans have said the government has no business making health care decisions. The should stay out of people’s lives. Remember Terri Shiavo? The Grand Old Packyderms were sure quick to get into that arena. I guess they don’t think people will remember that.

One of the most bogus statements I have heard regarding health care reform is that the plan has “Death Panel” who will decide if Grandma lives or dies.  Where on earth do these people get ideas like this? And besides, these decisions are already being  made on a daily basis throughout the country by doctors and families.

The bottom line here is to do nothing is insane. People in the richest country in the world should not have to decide between food and medicine. They should not have to worry about having to file backruptcy because of health care bills. And contrary to what the anti’s say, some of the uninsured are in that position not because they didn’t try to help themselves, but because the cost got to extreme and their employer dropped coverage, the company moved outside the US and they lost their jobs and many other conditions they had no control over. It makes my blood boil when I hear an anti accuse the uninsured of  causing their own problems.

In closing, I have a simple solution to the problem—–Congress can give us the health care plan they have.

Bobby Parrish