By: Chuck Muth
Chuck Muth’s News and Views

HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGALS VERY EXPENSIVE

“Illegal immigrants, meanwhile, are more likely to seek health-care at a hospital emergency room, according to both the CIS and the Pew Hispanic Center. . . . The Center for Immigration Studies, meanwhile, estimates that each year taxpayers – federal, state and local — end up paying more than $4 billion each year on emergency room visits by illegal aliens.”

– CNS News, 11/23/09

ILLEGALS’ USE OF ER’S JACK UP COSTS

“Emergency rooms have to take care of anyone who walks in — federal law requires any emergency room to provide care for anybody, regardless of ability to pay or legal status. Hospitals have to jack up prices for paying customers to cover the deficit.”

– Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies

OPPOSITION TO HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGALS ALMOST UNANIMOUS

“Few issues have caused as much of a stir this year as the question of whether illegal immigrants will be included in the Democratic healthcare bill. Rep. Joe Wilson’s ‘You lie!’ outburst after President Obama stated in September that illegal immigrants wouldn’t be covered is just one example of the tension. Eighty percent of Americans are loath to subsidize illegal immigrants according to a June 2009 Rasmussen poll.”

– George W. Grayson in the Christian Science Monitor, 11/19/09

YOU WANT GOVERNMENT CARE, GO HOME

“I oppose general health care funding for the 12 million illegal immigrants. I do not oppose humanitarian emergency treatment, but I do believe that they be identified and denied general elective services. If government health care is so good, then they should go home to get it.”

– Ross Kelly, Springfield News-Leader.com, 11/23/09

THE “EXCHANGE” LOOPHOLE

“Early in the (health care) reform debate, immigration looked like it would be the most contentious issue. . . . While none of the bills would have illegal immigrants getting government coverage through Medicare or Medicaid or being eligible for federal subsidies, debate still remains on their involvement in the health insurance exchange.”

– National Journal.com, 11/16/09

HOUSE BILL A TROJAN HORSE FOR ILLEGAL HEALTH COVERAGE

“H.R. 3962 (the House health care bill) would deliberately permit illegal aliens to participate in the government health insurance exchange and in the public option insurance program. It would nominally bar them from receiving health care ‘affordability credits’ and most regular Medicaid benefits, but verification procedures are weak and subject to fraud. Moreover, any limitations on benefits provided to illegal immigrants under the House bill are deceptive. The President and the congressional leadership clearly intend that these limits will be only temporary, to be overturned by amnesty or ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ legislation that will be introduced next spring.”

– Robert Rector, Heritage Foundation, 11/23/09

ILLEGAL HEALTH COVERAGE UNAFFORDABLE AND UNFAIR

“No matter what health care bill emerges from Congress, roughly one in six uninsured Californians will be excluded because they are not legal residents. . . . Excluding them has been a political flashpoint, with many conservatives arguing that providing more health care for people who are not legally in the country is both unaffordable and unfair.

“’It shouldn’t encourage future immigration or help out those who are here illegally now,’ said Dustin Carnevale, a spokesman for the Federation of American Immigrant Reform, a Washington-based group that advocates restricted immigration. FAIR estimates that U.S. taxpayers already spend $11 billion a year on health care for illegal immigrants, and that the cost would rise to $30 billion if they are offered the same subsidies as citizens in the health care bill.”

– North County Times, 11/26/09

SENATOR SAYS LET ILLEGALS USE “EXCHANGE”

“Undocumented immigrants should be able to purchase insurance from health insurance exchanges with their own money, not federal dollars, Sen. Robert Menendez (D.N.J.) said Thursday.”

– The Hill, 11/19/09

ILLEGALS NOT BARRED FROM HEALTH INSURANCE “EXCHANGES”

“The White House and the Senate Finance Committee…pledged that undocumented workers would be barred not only from receiving subsidies but also from buying insurance through federally sponsored exchanges — even if they used their own money. (But) when some House Democratic leaders pressed to match the Senate Finance Committee version, Hispanic lawmakers threatened to revolt and ultimately prevailed: Under the bill approved by the House, illegal immigrants would not be barred from the exchanges.”

– Washington Post, 11/16/09

ILLEGALS ARE BARRED FROM HEALTH INSURANCE “EXCHANGES”

“On the two most contentious issues — abortion funding and access of illegal immigrants to the insurance exchange – (Sen. Harry) Reid’s bill differs significantly from the House measure. Although the House-passed bill allows illegal immigrants to pay for insurance through the exchange with their own money, the Senate bill says they have no access to the exchange at all.”

– Patricia Murphy in Politics Daily, 11/19/09

A TALE OF TWO BILLS

“(The House health reform bill) would allow illegal immigrants to buy coverage from a national insurance exchange, but they would not get federal subsidies to help pay for it. (The Senate health reform bill) would not allow illegal immigrants to buy insurance from a national exchange, even if they could pay the full cost, without the subsidies.”

– New York Times, 11/19/09

ILLEGALS GET BENEFITS WITHOUT THE PENALTIES

“Individuals are required to purchase insurance policies for themselves and their families in both House and Senate versions of the bill, but the bills differ on enforcement. Penalties in the House version of the bill include a fine of up to 2.5 percent of a person’s adjusted gross income and as many as five years in jail. Exceptions would be given to those who cannot afford coverage, religious objectors, illegal immigrants, and those not covered for less than three months.”

– Christian Science Monitor, 11/24/09

CATHOLIC BISHOPS NOT BACKING ILLEGAL COVERAGE

“The House (health insurance reform) bill allows illegal immigrants to purchase insurance with their own money; the Senate bill bars all illegals from obtaining coverage and forces legal immigrants to show proof of legal status before they can obtain insurance subsidies. The (Catholic) Church, if it so chose, could flex its muscles once again and push lawmakers to adopt language similar to the House version of the bill. But so far, the Church has declined take up the cause for undocumented workers in the Senate.”

– Dan Carter on AirAmerica.com, 11/23/09

WHAT ABOUT BOB?

“Take for example this verbiage on page 271 (of H.R. 3590) which is the strongest language this writer could find limiting benefits for non-citizens.

“(2) CITIZENSHIP OR IMMIGRATION STATUS. The following information shall be provided with respect to every enrollee: (A) In the case of an enrollee whose eligibility is based on an attestation of citizenship of the enrollee, the enrollee’s social security number. (B) In the case of an individual whose eligibility is based on an attestation of the enrollee’s immigration status, the enrollee’s social security number (if applicable) and such identifying information with respect to the enrollee’s immigration status as the Secretary, after consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, determines appropriate.”

“In other words if you attest you are a citizen and you cannot provide a social security number, ANY social security number as there are no provisions for verification, then the rules will be defined by the respective Department Secretaries whom have all but declared an amnesty for illegal aliens already. NO E-Verify. NO other means of proving you are who you say you are. Just cough up Bob Smith’s SSN or just SAY you are Bob and you’re golden (sorry Bob).”

– Carl Braun, Examiner.com, 11/19/09

SURVEY SAYS!

Will the final House/Senate health care bill that ends up on President Obama’s desk include benefits for illegal immigrants?

• Yes
• No

To cast your vote in today’s online survey, click here!

MUTH’S TRUTHS

Did Huckabee Just Get Dukakis’ed?

Yesterday morning, four uniformed police officers in the Seattle area were ambushed in a coffee shop and gunned down. Authorities tell the Seattle Times that the primary suspect is Maurice Clemmons, who, according to the Times, has “a long record or violence” and who had his prison sentence in Arkansas commuted nine years ago by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.

If true – if Clemmons is the dirtbag who murdered four police officers and if Huckabee did, indeed, commute his prison sentence nine years ago – then say goodbye to Huckabee’s hope of ever becoming President of the United States.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“A punch in the gut, a busted lip, so on, and so forth. Things that happen in America every day during High School football practice, gym class during wrestling instruction, brothers fighting each other at home, and U.S. Marine Corps hazing of boots.

“I simply cannot help but be struck at how effeminate and muliebrous this has become. Does some lawyer-mommy want to take care of poor little Ahmed? Did he get roughed up playing with the big boys? Surely the enemy scoffs and mocks us. We should be embarrassed even to ask the SEALs about something like this.

“CENTCOM should be ashamed. SOCOM should be ashamed. It shows once again that we want to lawyer our engagements instead of win them and that we hold lawyers in higher regard than we do warriors. This is what we have become.”

– Blogger Herschel Smith, Captain’s Journal, on three Navy SEALs facing charges after capturing a terrorist named Ahmed Hashim Abed who claims the SEALs assaulted him