House
Democrats shut down debate on free health insurance for illegal
immigrants
October
15, 2009
Today at the
Ways and Means Committee markup to discuss the future costs of
H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,
the House Democrats shut down debate before U.S. Congressman Sam
Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) could offer an amendment to rule out
free health insurance for illegal immigrants.
“The
Democrats’ healthcare bill spends hundreds of billions of
dollars on subsidies for people to have access to government-run
healthcare and we need to ensure that American citizens are the
ONLY ones receiving these benefits,” said Johnson.
At
today’s markup, Johnson intended to offer an amendment to
clarify the vague language about illegal immigrants in the bill
passed by the Ways and Means Committee earlier this summer. In
July, Johnson co-authored an initiative to prohibit illegal immigrants
from accessing taxpayer subsidized care in the new government-run
plan; the Committee Democrats voted the measure down.
Today’s
common-sense amendment would have required people to show proof
of legal citizenship status through an individual’s name,
Social Security number, and date of birth by presenting a photo
identification to take advantage of taxpayer subsidized health
benefits.
According
to the Social Security Administration (SSA), more than 46 million
Social Security numbers have been issued to non-citizens. Some
of these individuals may now be U.S. citizens, but others may
continue to reside in the United States illegally. Johnson believes
that the mere possession of a valid Social Security number is
not adequate to establish U.S. citizenship or legal presence in
the United States. That is why the amendment adds the additional
safeguard that an individual must show a government-issued photo
ID.
“There
are so many activities that currently require a valid photo identification:
getting on an airplane, driving a car, entering a government building,
using a credit card or writing a check, renting a movie at Blockbuster.
It’s just common sense that Congress would require the same
proof of identification for someone to rent a $4 movie as they
should for people accessing the thousands of dollars of government
healthcare benefits,” wondered Johnson.
Ironically,
Johnson’s idea resembles a provision in the Senate Finance
Committee bill that passed earlier this week.
Johnson
represents portions of Dallas and Collin Counties.
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