Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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Iowa Rep. Steve King is making the media rounds to share his belief that health care reform legislation favored by President Barack Obama will end up insuring nearly 6 million illegal immigrants.
However, health care reform advocates say King’s assertions are at best stretching the truth and at worst outright falsehoods.
U.S. Rep. Steve King
In an interview Wednesday with the Christian news service OneNewsNow.com, King asserted that according to numbers from the Congressional Budget Office, 5.6 million illegal immigrants would receive insurance under a plan backed by House Democrats and President Obama.
The interview follows a press release King sent out last week claiming the legislation would provide healthcare to illegal immigrants because it doesn’t require recipients to verify their citizenship.
The bill actually does contain language pertaining to those in the United States illegally. Section 246 of the bill is titled “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens. (page 143)” It reads:
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
Illegal immigrants aren’t eligible for federal health programs under current law. They can get emergency care through Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor and people with disabilities. But they can’t get non-emergency care unless they pay and are ineligible for most other public benefits.
King’s 5.6 million figure is based on some quick arithmetic with CBO projections. The office’s report states that if health reform legislation is passed, there will be 17 million Americans with no insurance in 2019, nearly half of which will consist of illegal immigrants. King then takes estimates for the total number of illegal immigrants in 2019, which is 14.1 million, and subtracts half of 17 million (8.5 million) to get his figure.
As the nonpartisan FactCheck.org pointed out, about half of illegal immigrants in the U.S. have health care coverage now.
As the CBO itself said in a December 2008 report: “studies indicate that of the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants in this country [now], about half have health insurance and half are uninsured.”
The nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 41 percent of “unauthorized migrants” are insured.
The CBO research says nothing about illegal immigrants receiving health care benefits because the report was predicated on the idea that they are not be eligible for coverage under the proposed legislation.
While many are advocating the inclusion of an insurance option for illegal immigrants, especially immigrant children, the idea has been repeatedly shot down. President Obama told CBS News that he does not support including illegal immigrants in a government-run insurance option.
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