Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.
Congressman Joe Wilson heckled President Obama during the President's speech Wednesday night before a joint session of Congress. Congressman Wilson yelled out, "you lie," in response to the President's assertion that his health insurance plan would not cover illegal aliens.
Obama was relying on Section 246 of proposed HR 3200, entitled,
"NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS."
The section is obviously intended to confuse the innocent citizen with its verbose legalese, but in an effort to inform I will print it in its entirety:
"Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."
Whew. I hope the eyestrain isn't too bad from reading all that technical jargon.
The provision reaffirms the law as it has been for years.
Illegal aliens (a horrible term) will not be allowed to participate in the health insurance reform act.
The President was not lying.
Undocumented aliens will, however, continue to be able to get minimal emergency health care at emergency rooms. That has been the law for awhile now. It is not part of the health insurance reform act. Perhaps this old law is what Mr. Wilson and many of his defenders would like to change by requiring a government ID before medical treatment is received.
It is ironic that those who eschew bigger government are the proponents of a federal identification card for all citizens.
Sounds a bit facist.
.
I shouldn't be surprised that you only included the part of the bill that sounds like illegals will not be covered under this plan. The section of the bill you quoted is correct, however, you left off the parts of the bill that would, in fact, be used to cover illegal aliens. Section 246 says they will not be allowed to obtain new insurance subsidies. Section 1702 says there will be a major expansion of Medicaid and guess what? It also restricts inquiries into immigration status...hmmm...
ReplyDeleteIt's not too difficult to figure out what that means!