There’s a big flap over Rep. Joe Wilson loudly calling President Obama a liar during the address to Congress last night. Whether you agree with Wilson’s outburst or not, the facts are sort of on his side. As a member of the House, he would be most familiar with the House bill which does cover illegals.
Technically, Obama was correct that his plan does not cover illegal aliens because Obama has no plan that has been released, only concepts. So if Obama says his plan doesn’t cover illegals, then by definition it does not cover illegals — at least until we see the language in his plan. Similarly, the Senate HELP Committee bill defines an “eligible individual” in numerous places throughout the bill to include only citizens and legal residents (including for the public option, at page 111 of the bill).
So using the two measures, the non-existent Obama bill and the draft Senate HELP Committee bill which was not a full Senate proposal, Obama was correct.
But if the standard is the full House Bill, HR3200, then it appears that Obama was incorrect. There is nothing in HR3200 that excludes illegal aliens from the various coverage provisions (with a few limited exceptions). The Congressional Research Service agrees with this assessment (full report embedded below). For example, with regard to health care exchanges, the CRS found:
Follow the link to Legal Insurrection where there is much more information. I’d put my money on illegals being covered. Ironic – since it will be all of our tax dollars covering them.
Update: Reason’s editor Matt Welch did an excellent job of chronicling the whoppers told by President Obama last night.
Update 2:Here’s House Minority Leader John Boehner fact checking Obama’s speech. He addresses Americans being forced onto any public plan, as well as the issue of illegals being covered.
ViaBreitbart
I think it’s really quite simple. People will not be required to prove citizenship to aquire a healthcare ID card. There’s your illegal alien loophole right there. If I recall the republicans tried to get the democrats to change that and they refused. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
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OMG, NOW Obama is going to give ANTOHER speech on Monday in NY about the financial crisis. Can’t this guy just shut UP??
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We just heard that on the radio on our way home from dinner. Mark Levin hopes he gives 10 speeches a day. Obviously, his silly speeches no longer enthrall the masses. What an idiot.
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There is currently many levels of prevention to insure that illegals can not get jobs in the US. There are penalties to employers that hire them. They are required to show two forms of ID and have a valid SS number.
By contrast, it is legal for them to purchase insurance. Legal immigrants can and do get insurance today and will continue to be able to after obamacare.
What you need to believe (to believe that they wont get obamacare) is that those who entered illegally will be moved by Obama to not fill out the forms. Insurance companies (which Obama calls evil and only concerned about money) will not face penalties for insuring somebody who entered the country illegally. Nor will they have a phone number to call to determine if somebody has entered illegally. If a SS number is provided they will not be able to confirm that the SS number matches the name. Insurance companies would not get paid for the effort and likely would face a lawsuit from the ACLU for profiling.
The only way they will not get coverage is if they do not fill out the forms, or allow a clinic to fill them out for them.
The number used by the white house 47 Million uninsured includes those who are not legally in the country.
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