House Democrats shut down debate on free health insurance for illegal immigrants
Washington,
Oct 15 -
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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