President George W. Bush’s amnesty plan for illegal aliens is controversial for many reasons. Some believe it will “reward” criminal behavior, while others believe illegal aliens depress wages. Some lawmakers and their constituents believe granting legal status to aliens would be potentially burdensome to the Medicaid system.
From Medical News Today:
Under the 1996 welfare law, legal immigrants cannot apply for Medicaid or welfare benefits during their first five years in the U.S., but state officials and fiscal conservative lawmakers “fear the potential for vast new entitlement spending over the longer term,” according to CQ Today. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said that proposals to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants would increase the cost of entitlement programs, adding, “It could be pretty big, and … nobody knows how big. (Medicaid) is one of the issues people haven’t grappled with yet.”
One lawmaker says most of the aliens who’d benefit from the amnesty plan aren’t in the income range for Medicaid. No one knows for sure how many illegal aliens are in the United States or how many would be eligible for Medicaid.
The debate over this issue is heating up. It would be interesting to know what long term care providers think of illegal immigration and what concerns they have over the effects amnesty may have on the Medicaid program.
