{"id":22392,"date":"2020-01-15T14:51:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T19:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22392"},"modified":"2020-01-15T14:51:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T19:51:07","slug":"health-care-illegal-immigrants-california-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/01\/15\/health-care-illegal-immigrants-california-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"With Homelessness a Crisis, California Wants to Insure Illegal Senior Citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has termed homelessness<\/a> a \u201cnational crisis\u201d and represents \u201ca real emergency\u201d in his state, so it makes complete sense that he wants to extend to illegal aliens over the age of 65 the benefit of coverage under the state\u2019s Medicaid program. After all, what\u2019s another $64.2 million annual payout to illegal aliens ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, if that\u2019s not fiscally illogical enough, the\ngovernor\u2019s anti-homelessness plan actually proposes using funds from the\nMedi-Cal program to pay down the $1.4 billion price tag. According to the governor\u2019s\ncalculations, it makes sense to take from a program designed to meet the health\ncare needs of low-income Californians and spend on aging illegal aliens and\nhousing needs of the homeless?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom assures<\/a> that extending the benefit of health care coverage to another illegal demographic will actually contain the skyrocketing costs of health care in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Budget also moves the state toward universal\ncoverage and furthers cost containment goals by expanding full-scope Medi-Cal\ncoverage to low-income undocumented Californians aged 65 and above,\u201d he\nmaintained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to understand the insanity of the present, it\nis worth recalling the nonsensical course of events that brought California to\nrewarding those lawbreakers who\u2019ve been here the longest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the California legislature opened the door to illegal health insurance when they passed and signed a law<\/a> allowing illegal immigrants under the age of 19 to access Medi-Cal. Since 2016, more than $360 million a year has been spent to insure illegal immigrant children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the budget signed into law last spring, California chose to further expand Medi-Cal coverage to illegal aliens through the age of 26<\/a>, a benefit which eats approximately $98 million of the state\u2019s budget just in the first year. According to CALmatters, the potential cost of giving coverage to low-income illegal immigrant young adults could be as high as $1 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that senior non-citizens will be covered, just tack on an additional $121 million annually, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. Who would pay for the cost of covering more illegal immigrants? Part of it would be picked up by Californians who forgo health insurance and are required to pay a fine. Interestingly, the state health insurance marketplace does exempt some individuals<\/a> from the fines, including those in prison, those who fall under the federal poverty line and \u201ccertain non-citizens who are not lawfully present.\u201d In other words, citizens who opt not to purchase health insurance have no health insurance and<\/em> pay a fine. Illegal aliens who decide not to get insurance are not penalized, while those who want it will get a taxpayer subsidy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The willingness to commit more than a billion dollars\na year to insuring illegal immigrants makes even less sense when several\ndemographic changes are considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is that the state\u2019s population is now growing at the slowest rate since 1900<\/a> and many residents are moving for more favorable tax, housing and business climates, and birth rates continue to decline. And it is an aging population that will be unable to sustain the ballooning benefits politicians today are handing out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many believe that the extension of Medi-Cal to more illegal immigrants will exacerbate an existing physician shortage<\/a> in the state. Lastly, there are existing problems in the state\u2019s health system that Newsom and the legislature need to address before pouring money down the drain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHealthcare accessibility is about more than just the uninsured rate. After all, insurance is useless if a patient can’t find a hospital or doctor who will see him — or if his coverage doesn’t afford him access to the right medications and treatments,\u201d says Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has termed homelessness a \u201cnational crisis\u201d and represents \u201ca real emergency\u201d in his state, so it makes complete sense that he wants to extend to illegal aliens over the age of 65 the benefit of coverage under the state\u2019s Medicaid program. After all, what\u2019s another $64.2 million annual payout to illegal<\/p>\n

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