In the wee hours of Friday night, at the end of a long Friday, the rememberence of September 11th, and going into a weekend of protests – from which Obama did his best Holy Grail impersonation – the White House made a very quiet hush hush admission
The White House tonight is providing the below clarification on what the president’s health-care proposals would mean when it comes to the issue of illegal immigrants.
The question, as we all know, arises from the Wilson “You lie” outburst, and the core claim that notwithstanding specific bill language barring illegal immigrants from participating in the “exchange,” as a practical matter, there is no way of verifying the citizenship of applicants — which is the current state of play. Republicans say that then means illegal immigrants would end up being enrolled in plans – bill language or no bill language.
Today, for the first time as far as we know, the administration is backing a provision that would require proof of citizenship before someone could enroll in a plan selected on the exchange.
First, when Joe Wilson yelled out “lie” when Obama stated that illegal aliens would not be covered, well, yes, he was right. While President Sparky was standing at the podium glowering at Joe, Joe was right. As the news media went nuts, telling us how mean Joe was, Joe was right. Funny how those things happen, eh
Second, I find it interesting that these are the first details released regarding Obama’s health plan. He offered none during his campaign speech to Congress, and still hasn’t released an overall plan. Except for this. Heh!
Here are the bullet points from ye olde White House (I am ommitting the one about emergency room care for illegals, since that has long been in place, and really has nothing to do with Obama)
- Undocumented immigrants would not be able to buy private insurance on the exchange. Those who are lawfully present in this country would be able to participate.
- Undocumented immigrants would be able to buy insurance in the non-exchange private market, just as they do today. That market will shrink as the exchange takes hold, but it will still exist and will be subject to reforms such as the bans on pre-existing conditions and caps.
- Verification will be required when purchasing health insurance on the exchange. One option is the SAVE program (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) which states currently use to make sure that undocumented immigrants don’t participate in safety-net programs for which they are ineligible.
Notice the second one. “The [private] market will shrink as the exchange takes hold.” I have said time and time again that the whole point of this so-called reform is to eventually implement single payer. If we listen to Obama and other Democrats, the “public option” would simply provide some competition to private insurers. Here, we find out it is expected to shrink the private market.
Of course, this whole thing could mean nothing in the long run, since what Joe Wilson was referring to was HR 3200, which does allow illegals to be part of the system beyond emergency rooms. Obama can come up with all the plans he wants, but, the legislation is already there. Obama might want to pay attention to what is actually flowing through the halls of Congress in the future.
PS: The Obama administration also tried to bury a story that they will be going ahead with no-preconditions talks with Iran, releasing it Friday night.
Double PS: Media Matters points out that more media is paying attention to Wilson than to Obama’s speech. Obama now wearing “pwnd” sign.
Triple PS: Wilson says he will not apologize on the House floor, as the Democrats want him to do.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
