California's Medi-Cal Covers 768,400 Illegal Immigrants, Partially Funded By Federal Dollars

A study shows that the state of California had approximately 2.8 million illegal immigrants in 2006. One‐fourth of the nation’s undocumented immigrants reside in California. If you add up the total illegal immigrant population of Texas, Arizona and California, it is approximately equivalent to 43% of the total U.S. illegal immigrants. Add Florida, Illinois and New York to it and you are well over 50% of the illegal population, with California illegal immigrants being about equal to the total number of illegal immigrants of the bottom 40 states.

In California undocumented immigrants constitute about 10% of the population, the highest concentration of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Study by Public Policy Institute of California, PPIC, estimates suggest that California’s undocumented immigrant population is increasing by about 50,000 per year compared to about 100,000 per year in the 1990s. Between 2000 and 2006, the illegal immigrant population grew 13% in California, less than one‐third the rate of growth in the rest of the nation. During this period, undocumented immigration has accounted for only 10% of the state’s overall population growth.

California has a state run healthcare plan called Medi-Cal. The California Department of Health Care Services estimates 768,400 illegal immigrants will receive coverage this fiscal year through Medi-Cal, the health program funded by state and federal tax money. The cost for Medi-Cal is $1.2 billion. Illegal immigrants are eligible only for emergency room care.

Emergency rooms in California and throughout the country guarantee care because federal law prohibits hospitals from refusing service, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.

Two-thirds of California’s uninsured are U.S. citizens; of 51,000 households surveyed, another 15 percent were legal residents, and 20 percent were noncitizens without green cards.

Most people in emergency rooms are there because of unemployment. Whereas about 28% of illegal immigrants visit the emergency room in California, approximately 3% of the emergency room visits are by illegal immigrants.

Medicaid, a national program that covers many uninsured people that cannot otherwise afford care also ends up paying for illegal immigrants. Medicaid pays for emergency room care for anyone regardless of the ability to pay or immigration status. The reason for not checking legality status for emergency care is so not to postpone emergency care for U.S. citizens. Everyone in the emergency room without insurance would have to wait for approval of legality status before care was given.

The healthcare reform discussed in Washington and the nation would extend Medicaid to cover more people. It would make it eligible for more Americans who are uninsured to receive a wide variety of healthcare benefits. But it is in no way adding benefits for illegal immigrants. It is only allowing more Americans to be eligible and allow extra money in its budget to constitute for the growing cost of healthcare.

But it will still be paying for emergency care, regardless of legal status or ability to pay. This is done to protect from delays that may end up being fatal for U.S. citizens in of immediate care. It is done to save the lives of Americans in emergency situations.

H.R. 3200, the suggested healthcare reform legislation, states in Section 246 that “No federal payment” will be made for “undocumented aliens”. It reads:

H.R. 3200: Sec 246

NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Section 246 says that no federal spending will be spent on the proposed public option. H.R. 3200 is explaining that it will expand eligibility for more poor Americans and will fund the Medicaid program, therefore covering the program’s policy of not checking the legality status of the people in need of emergency care, therefore some funds will end up paying for illegal immigrants. But none of that money is going for the proposed public option. No illegal immigrant under the public option will ever be treated for any kind of health service. The public option will not cover illegal immigrants.

The criticism of H.R. 3200 by Joe WilsonJoe Wilson and other Republican leaders is not a critique of H.R. 3200 it is of Medicaid.

California’s Medi-Cal program is paying 1.2 billion dollars to cover the treatment of everyone that qualifies for its services. 3% of emergency room care in California hospitals is estimated to be by uninsured illegal immigrants. That is 36 million dollars going to pay for emergency room care is for illegal immigrants by the Medi-Cal. Taken to a national level, if California has about a quarter of the U.S.’s illegal immigrant population, the estimated costs of illegal immigrants’ emergency that will be funded by Medicaid about .75%. It will be less than 1% of the proposed Medicaid program, and not at all part of the public option program.

Now the question is raised, is 1% of the national Medicaid budget, worth the lives of all the U.S. citizens that will visit emergency care and will have to wait for legality clearance before receiving care. Many of whom may die waiting for clearance. Should we consult the “death panel” proposed in the public option? They’ve answered yes. To save the life of even one person per state, who would otherwise die waiting for legal status clearance is worth 1% of the national Medicaid program. The death panels have proclaimed it.

70% of the immigrants in California are legal immigrants. That means that in California many of the ethnic people you see filling up emergency rooms are not illegal immigrant. They are legal. Many of them have insurance. The legal ones that don’t have insurance, programs like Medi-Cal and Medicaid cover them.

97% of all emergency room visits is by a legal immigrant or a U.S. citizen. To limit the care that 97% of emergency room visitors receive to deny a 3% minority does not make sense.

99% of all emergency room visits in the United States is by U.S. citizens and legal residents. To limit the care of 99% of emergency room visitors to deny less than 1% of illegal the minority is just wrong. It is immoral and economically unreasonable. It would cost more to administrate a program to federally screen all emergency care visitors to check for their legal status.