On Wednesday last week, President Barack Obama participated in a scripted online townhall with a friendly audience of religious voters and pastors in an effort to dispel misinformation regarding HR 3200, the Health-Care Reform Bill.
In a brazen and inept attempt to “relate” (as in “pander”) to his church-going audience, the President accused opponents of “bearing false witness” against his plans. I suppose by that he meant his critics are lying. True, bearing false witness is a specific type of lie, but it’s very difficult to do against an abstract object. Usually, false witness is borne against a person. Like Sarah Palin, for instance…
But, I digress.
During the meeting, Obama debunked “disinformation” alleging that illegal aliens would be eligible for the proposed plan. “That’s not true,” he objected, “There’s a specific provision in the bill that does not provide health insurance for those individuals.”
Let’s take a look at the text, shall we? The provision he cited is located on page 143 and reads as follows:
SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS
Wow. Can’t get much clearer than that! It looks like the Big O is right: Undocumented aliens are excluded from collecting benefits under the plan
But… hey, wait a cotton-pickin’ minute!
On page 50, SEC. 152 explicitly prohibits discrimination under the act with “regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.”
In other words, undocumented aliens are not only eligible for ObamaCare, but their coverage is mandated.
So what’s up, Big O? Quit jacking us around! Are they covered or not?
A further reading of Section 246 reveals that the plan only disallows “Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
“Affordability credits” are federal subsidies that offset the cost of monthly health plan premiums for low income earners.
So, in short, undocumented aliens are eligible for the plan under Section 152, but ineligible for premium subsidies.
Now, let’s do the math:
- Though illegal aliens will be prohibited from receiving Federal premium subsidies, they are not prohibited from participating in the plan.
- Every benefit dollar received by the participant in excess of premium paid represents a deficit against the plan; and…
- The plan is funded by tax dollars and benefits are paid by the Fed.
Gee… either the President doesn’t understand the eligibility guidelines of the Public Option, or he is deliberately lying.
This is a very misleading aspect of the bill, one likely to be quoted by Democrats and frothing moonbats over the next few months to bolster their charges of us “uninformed evil mongerers” spreading “disinformation.”
So next time some know-it-all Kool-Aid-drinker arrogantly bleats that illegal aliens aren’t covered under ObamaCare, tell them they are incorrect (or “full of shit,” if you prefer). SEC. 246 only forbids the payment of Federal premium subsidies to illegals. It does not deny their eligibility to participate and/or collect reimbursement for medical charges under the plan.
As a matter of fact, under SEC. 152, the plan is explicitly prohibited against denying coverage to illegal aliens.
Big X, out!
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.