Obama Extends Healthcare to Illegal Aliens
CFIF ^ | January 23, 2009
Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009 8:07:42 PM by Steelfish
Obama Extends Healthcare to Illegal Aliens January 19, 2009 CFIF.org
As Taxpayers Struggle, Congress and Obama Extend Healthcare to Illegal Immigrants, and Raise Taxes on Lower-Income Americans
While an increasing number of Americans face layoffs, benefit cuts and difficulty paying their bills, the last thing that President-Elect Obama and Congress should be doing is devising ways to make taxpayers' lives even tougher by forcing them to subsidize healthcare for illegal immigrants.
But believe it or not, that is precisely what they are poised to do.
In so doing, they will also raise taxes on Americans earning well under $250,000, the supposed floor that Obama promised during campaign season for any tax increases.
This week, the House voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, pronounced "s-chip"), the federal health care system that provides health insurance to lower-income children via funding to the states. Created in 1997, it constituted the greatest government healthcare expansion since Medicaid and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society."
In theory, SCHIP aims to assist children whose families' incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid, but too low to afford private insurance. In practice, however, SCHIP covers hundreds of thousands of adults, while excluding many children that it should presumably assist.
And in 2007, the Pelosi-Reid Congress attempted to eviscerate even that income criterion, by expanding SCHIP to cover families whose incomes exceeded the federal poverty level some 300%. Accordingly, it was rightfully seen as a first step on the inexorable road to nationalized health care for all Americans.
And now, Obama and Congress are not only preparing to implement that dramatic funding increase, but also to remove current restrictions prohibiting illegal immigrants from exploiting SCHIP to receive benefits.
CFIF ^ | January 23, 2009
Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009 8:07:42 PM by Steelfish
Obama Extends Healthcare to Illegal Aliens January 19, 2009 CFIF.org
As Taxpayers Struggle, Congress and Obama Extend Healthcare to Illegal Immigrants, and Raise Taxes on Lower-Income Americans
While an increasing number of Americans face layoffs, benefit cuts and difficulty paying their bills, the last thing that President-Elect Obama and Congress should be doing is devising ways to make taxpayers' lives even tougher by forcing them to subsidize healthcare for illegal immigrants.
But believe it or not, that is precisely what they are poised to do.
In so doing, they will also raise taxes on Americans earning well under $250,000, the supposed floor that Obama promised during campaign season for any tax increases.
This week, the House voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, pronounced "s-chip"), the federal health care system that provides health insurance to lower-income children via funding to the states. Created in 1997, it constituted the greatest government healthcare expansion since Medicaid and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society."
In theory, SCHIP aims to assist children whose families' incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid, but too low to afford private insurance. In practice, however, SCHIP covers hundreds of thousands of adults, while excluding many children that it should presumably assist.
And in 2007, the Pelosi-Reid Congress attempted to eviscerate even that income criterion, by expanding SCHIP to cover families whose incomes exceeded the federal poverty level some 300%. Accordingly, it was rightfully seen as a first step on the inexorable road to nationalized health care for all Americans.
And now, Obama and Congress are not only preparing to implement that dramatic funding increase, but also to remove current restrictions prohibiting illegal immigrants from exploiting SCHIP to receive benefits.