Health Care Sends Immigration Into Coma

They have been washing our cars and our dishes, caring for our children and elderly, picking our crops and mowing our lawns. They work in construction, restaurant kitchens and sweatshops, and those are some of the less hazardous jobs they do. And yet most politicians — including President Barack Obama — say undocumented immigrants should not be entitled to health care coverage.

My, how times have changed! That's not necessarily what Obama was saying when he was seeking the Latino vote at this time last year. In fact, at that time, the president and his Democratic surrogates were telling Latinos that by this time, they would be passing comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize some 12 million illegal immigrants. And once they became legal U.S. residents, it was assumed that they would be entitled to the same health care coverage that all other Americans are entitled to.

Unfortunately, while bravely tackling other issues, the Democrats have cowered over immigration.

Ever since they won the White House and the majority in Congress — thanks to the Hispanic vote — Democrats have been doing the moonwalk toward their alleged intentions to reform immigration. Some even are backpedaling. In Spanish, we call it "traición," which means "betrayal."

Of course, the president's health care reform debacle — his failure to present his own plan from the very beginning, his inability to stop the polarization of the country, his weak leadership — has practically buried any chances of passing immigration reform even next year.

Let's face it: Health care reform has sent immigration reform into a coma. The Democrats' poorly fought health care battle already has mobilized the same conservative forces that surely will stand against any effort to legalize undocumented immigrants.

But even worse, the health care debate has created a new price tag for immigration reform. If some sort of health care reform is passed and it excludes undocumented immigrants, the conservatives then will be able to argue that we simply cannot afford to add some 12 million members to our national health care plan.

Yet instead of trying to prevent this, Democrats are rushing to provide health care coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans while cowardly throwing 12 million undocumented immigrants under the "political expediency" bus.

When the Democrats cave in to conservative pressure and tell us that they also oppose including undocumented immigrants in the health care reform plan, we know they are being terribly disingenuous, especially when they also claim that they intend to make those immigrants legal sometime next year.

Will those immigrants be entitled to health care coverage at that time? And how much will it cost?

Amazingly, under the proposed health care reform legislation, undocumented immigrants who already have health insurance could actually lose their coverage. Because they would be prohibited from participating in the so-called "insurance exchange" that would be created by the legislation, these immigrants would have to buy outside coverage — at considerably higher rates than legal residents. Of course, that means that most would be given no other recourse than to seek health care assistance in our hospital emergency rooms, where taxpayers would be asked to pay their bills.

I know. It doesn't make sense. After Obama and the Democrats gained control of both the legislative and executive branches of government earlier this year, who would have thought that when they finally got to debate immigration in Congress, it would be within the health care bill or that it would be used to bash undocumented immigrants even further or that it would be the motive for a barbaric "you lie" outburst against the president? Who would have thought that the Democrats would turn out to be so gutsy in dealing with so many issues but such cowards when tackling immigration reform?

By selling out the undocumented immigrants in the health care legislation, the Democrats have created a new price tag for any legalization plan, unified and fortified the opposition, and sent immigration reform into intensive care and a deep comatose state.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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