|
| |
|
|
| |
Hispanic Groups
Working to Ensure Immigrants are Given Coverage |
|
| |
The
Washington Post (11/12,
Thompson) reports, "The nation's Hispanic lawmakers and largest
advocacy groups are scrambling to develop a strategy to counter
what they see as efforts to shortchange immigrants in health
bills on Capitol Hill. ... With the current bills excluding more
than a million Hispanics -- mostly legal immigrants -- the
debate runs into the issue of immigrants' rights." According to
the Post, "Under the health bill passed in the House on
Saturday, illegal immigrants would be allowed to buy insurance
on a newly created exchange with their own money and without
government subsidies," but "the bill expected in the Senate
would bar illegal immigrants from the exchange altogether. In
both the Senate and House, all legal immigrants are eligible for
government subsidies to buy insurance on the exchange, but
immigrants who have been in the country for less than five years
would remain barred by existing law from enrolling in Medicaid
and Medicare."
USA Today
debates including undocumented immigrants in health overhaul.
USA Today (11/12)
editorializes that uninsured, undocumented immigrants "will
continue to get sick" and continue to receive hospital and
clinic care -- "both of which are supported directly or
indirectly by taxpayers, the insured population, or both."
Hence, it is illogical to exclude them when doing so could help
"defray the costs" of insurance premiums and taxes. Moreover,
data from the Migration
Policy Institute show that "of the estimated 12 million
unauthorized people in this country, about 3.7 million have
insurance through an employer"; approximately 7 million are
uninsured; and about 362,000 buy individual insurance. "Only the
last group, plus the small segment of uninsured who have the
means to buy insurance, would be" affected by health reform.
In an "Opposing View" column in
USA Today (11/12), Dan
Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration
Reform, argues that extending insurance to unauthorized
immigrants would make healthcare "even more expensive."
According to Stein, "uncompensated care for illegal aliens
already costs taxpayers $11 billion" annually. He cites a CBO
analysis, which concluded
that "expanded utilization" often leads to higher medical
spending; and adds that greater utilization by undocumented
immigrants would also "impact healthcare quality," by increasing
physician wait times and reducing "access to services." Stein
also contends that allowing unauthorized immigrants to purchase
insurance under exchanges would create a "powerful magnet" for
increased "illegal immigration."
In his
Washington Post (11/12)
blog, Ezra Klein writes that Obama "has not given much in the
way of specifics for healthcare reform," but "the exception is a
number that was neither nonnegotiable nor dictated, but was
received on the Hill as if it was both, and has come to dominate
the healthcare reform process: $900 billion," which "sprang from
Obama's September speech laying out his own plan on healthcare
reform." Rep. George Miller (D-CA) is quoted as saying, "It made
things complicated. We were working off of one track and then we
had to switch." According to Klein, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid's (D-NV) office is waiting for the CBO "to return an
official score of their healthcare reform bill" and "if it's
under $900 billion, they will move forward with it," but "if
it's over $900 billion, they will revise it, and send it back to
CBO for a new, and hopefully lower, score." Klein wonders "how
the Obama administration came up with the $900 billion
estimate...why they included it in their speech, after so
relentlessly avoiding specifics until that moment" and "why the
Hill embraced it as a hard limit rather than a general
proposal."
Reid may
raise payroll taxes for wealthy to help finance health reform.
The
AP (11/12, Espo) reports
that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "is considering a
plan for higher payroll taxes on the upper-income earners to
help finance healthcare legislation he intends to introduce in
the Senate in the next several days, numerous Democratic
officials said Wednesday." One of the options Sen. Reid is
considering "would raise the payroll tax that goes to Medicare,
but only on income above $250,000 a year. Current law sets the
tax at 1.45 percent of income, an amount matched by employers."
Still, "it was not known how large an increase Reid...was
considering, or whether it would also apply to a company's
portion of the tax."
New House
schedule could allow for final passage of health reform bill
this year.
The Hill (11/12, Fabian,
Swanson) reports that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
"outlined the new schedule on Wednesday, saying he is prepared
to keep the House working until Dec. 22 in order to pass the
keystone issue of President Barack Obama's first year in
office." The Hill notes that "Hoyer's move follows" Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) "decision late Tuesday night
to file a motion that could allow the Senate to begin debate on
healthcare next week. The actions by Reid and Hoyer appear
designed to meet a goal of sending a healthcare bill to Obama's
desk by the end of the year, though that task will be difficult
given divisions among Democrats in both chambers." White House
chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Vice President Biden, and President
Obama "have recently touted the year-end deadline." Hoyer "said
the House would be in session for the first three weeks of
December, but that could be extended to the week of Christmas.
'The House could also be in session on Monday, Dec. 21, and
Tuesday, Dec. 22, if needed,' Hoyer said in a statement."
Learn how easy and convenient shopping for health insurance can be. Get your
free health insurance online quotes today! |
|
| |
|
|
|
