This month, the Democratic-controlled California Senate agreed to expand health care for illegals by a 28-11 vote, therefore proving that Obama lied in 2009 when he said that Obamacare “would not apply to those who are here illegally.” And as Debra J. Saunders writes in Townhall, the decision to grant illegals Obamacare will open the floodgates at the border:
This is how change happens. Last year, [state Sen. Ricardo] Lara’s first “Health for All” bill promised health care to all California residents regardless of immigration status. The tab was $1.3 billion. It was too pricey, so he peeled it back, and back some more — to a projected $135 million. How? The bill that passed the state Senate would provide Medi-Cal to minors regardless of immigration status but no subsidy for undocumented residents who want to purchase private plans through Covered California, absent a federal subsidy. Also, SB 4 would put a cap on unauthorized adults applying for Medi-Cal. When it looks as if the funding will run out, the state probably will not accept new enrollees.
What is the cap on undocumented enrollees? Don’t know. “The cap would depend on budget allocations to be decided next year,” answered Lara spokesman Jesse Melgar.
In a way, it doesn’t matter. If SB 4 becomes law, the camel’s nose will have penetrated the tent. Within six years of the president’s promising that immigrants in the country would not be eligible for Obamacare — presumably because that would be wrong — the first state will have bypassed that promise. You just know that Sacramento will continue to push to expand the number of immigrants eligible for benefits. No one ever told the Democratic Legislature that you cannot say “yes” to everyone.
Sure, Sacto solons look generous waving Medi-Cal before some 1 million immigrants who came here illegally. But with Medi-Cal paying doctors as little as $16 for a patient visit, many physicians are refusing to take more Medi-Cal patients. Pols don’t care if already there are not enough doctors to pay for the program’s existing 12 million recipients. They look good; the docs look greedy.
As it is, Medi-Cal provided “limited scope” benefits — pregnancy care, emergency care and long-term care — to 786,600 unauthorized immigrants last year. If you want more of something, reward it. If California offers “full scope” coverage to people if they come here illegally, opined Jon Fleischman, publisher of the conservative FlashReport, “there is no amount of border security that you can erect that will come between smart people and (this) free stuff.”
State Sen. Anthony Cannella is one of the GOP senators who voted “yes” for Lara’s bill. He considers the measure to be a “moral issue,” and thinks that there needs to be better enforcement of the border. How ironic.
