Social Darwinism
Diary
Just doing my little part in getting the word out in favor of social justice. My "favorite" part is how someone somewhere thought that hospitals would be the best place to sort out who was documented and who was not. Next time you're bleeding out, make sure to bring your passport!
Which reminds me of how Immigration Agents would hang out in the emergency rooms during epidemics and snatch fathers away from their families while they waited to have their American Born children checked out by a doctor. The law says you can't leave an unaccompanied child behind. So usually, breadwinning dads are taken away while Mom and little Johnny are sick and now, totally devestatingly upset.
No, wait, I have another "favorite" part. The part where undocumented workers would not be able to buy their own private insurance with their own hard earned money. Republicans really hate brown people more than making money. Thankfully, this part was defeated.
Immigrants and Health Reform Update - November 9, 2009
House Health Reform Bill Passes
On Saturday night, November 7, 2009, the House of Representatives passed an historic, though imperfect, health care reform bill. The bill is significant for many reasons-first, it moves the health reform debate forward and puts pressure on the Senate to pass a health reform bill of their own. Also, the bill exemplifies many of the goals of health reform - it will make health insurance more affordable for millions of people (including immigrants who are naturalized citizens and lawful residents), it helps to contain the skyrocketing costs of the health care system in the United States, and it includes many provisions to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes. It is still a mixed bag in many respects for immigrants, however. While many lawfully residing immigrants would gain access to affordable health insurance and attempts to add a truly anti-immigrant provision were thwarted at the end, inequities for lawfully residing immigrants remain in Medicaid and undocumented immigrants are largely excluded from reforms.
Lawfully Residing Immigrants & Affordability Credits. Hundreds of thousands of lawfully residing immigrants in New York who currently make too much money for Medicaid or Family Health Plus, do not receive insurance through an employer, and cannot afford to buy insurance on their own will be eligible for the affordability credits that will make insurance more affordable.
Lawfully Residing Immigrants & Medicaid. Tragically, the final House bill does NOT restore federal Medicaid eligibility for lawful permanent residents within their first five years. This means that the most recent, lowest income legal residents will still not have access to a critical safety net benefit that their own tax money supports. Yet these same people will be required to buy insurance. Importantly, as a result of a lawsuit in 2001, New York extends Medicaid and Family Health Plus coverage to all lawfully residing immigrants who meet the income guidelines regardless of how long they have been lawful residents, and will continue to do so with state-only money.
Undocumented Immigrants. Undocumented immigrants are already restricted from most public insurance programs, including Medicaid and Family Health Plus in New York, and the House bill does nothing to change that policy. Undocumented immigrants are also not eligible for the affordability credits or subsidies that will make insurance affordable. But, in the final days leading up to the vote, some Members of Congress wanted to take it one absurd step further, as their colleagues in the Senate Finance Committee have done in their bill, and exclude undocumented immigrants from even being able to buy full-price insurance with their own money in the Exchange marketplace.
But prominent Representatives, particularly Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez and others in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as health reform advocates and immigrant communities, scored a significant political victory in the health reform fight by successfully stopping the introduction of an amendment in the Republican’s Motion to Recommit which would have attempted to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Exchange. This provision is completely counterproductive to the goals of health reform. Health reform should allow opportunities for more people to pay into the health care system, not less. It is costlier to the health care system to exclude people - without insurance people avoid care until it becomes more serious, and more costly. Also, verifying the citizenship or immigration status of each person who wants to pay their own money in the Exchange would be very costly to do and to a ridiculous, inhuman end - to keep people who just want to keep themselves and their families healthy from buying insurance with their own money.
The Politics of Reform. Once again, illegal immigration was used as a wedge issue to divide support for the health reform bill, as it has been used in past policy debates. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other key Members, advocates, and immigrant communities sent a clear message that the politics of division and exclusion is not a winning strategy. Congress and the White House must remember this as the health reform debate moves to the Senate, on to Conference, and then to the President’s desk.
So the fight continues for real health reform that includes as many people as possible. And we can expect that the misinformation and emotion around immigration issues will be exploited until the end. But we will not tolerate the anti-immigrant politics of division and we stand with you to demand real solutions for the health care crisis.
As we look to the Senate, we have these priorities:
- 1) Lawfully residing immigrants must be treated fairly -the five-year waiting period in Medicaid should be removed, and legal immigrants should have the same access as citizens to subsidies for affordable insurance.
2) Everyone, regardless of immigration status, should be able to buy insurance with their own money in the Exchange.
3) Oppose additional unnecessary citizenship documentation and verification measures for health programs -these have been shown to only add cost to the health care system and barriers for citizens and lawful immigrants alike.
4) Protect the safety net health care system so that the millions of people who remain uninsured after reform passes still have access to health care.
We look to your support for these priorities! Many of you are already actively pushing for quality, affordable health care for all, and we are grateful for your efforts. In the next few days, we will be circulating a sign-on letter in support of these priorities. We urge your organization to sign on to build a stronger, diverse force behind this agenda.
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