Another Immigration Myth Debunked: Health Care Reform = Free health care for illegal aliens.

Still from the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film shot in Humboldt county in 1967, via Wikipedia used under Creative Commons from Thomas Roche.

Photo of Garden Gnome used under Creative Commons from Kmoney56.

A very common email, call, and discussion I have revolves on the proposed health care reform legislation in Congress. There is a belief that the bill would provide free health care to illegal aliens. This is a myth. Nevertheless, it keeps getting repeated by media.

For example, health care protester, Heather Liggett, was on National Public Radio (NPR) on Friday, August 7, 2009. Ms. Liggett described some of the questions and comments at Congressman Lloyd Doggett’s town hall meeting in Austin, Texas held earlier this month:

“My mom's question was why aren't you reading the bills before you sign them? And his response was that he helped co-sponsor this particular bill, which led into another question, you co-sponsored allowing illegals to get free medicine?”

NPR then interviewed Bill Adair with PolitiFact about the truth of the assertion that the proposed health care bill, HB 3200, gives free health care to illegal immigrants.

"We gave that our lowest rating on our Truth-O-Meter: a pants on fire," he says. "To the contrary, there's language [in the bill] that says that undocumented aliens would not be eligible for the credit under this plan." The claim came from a chain e-mail that included many other assertions…

Indeed, Section 246 entitled, “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens”, states:

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Please keep separating the wheat from the chaff and consider your sources of information as you form your opinions about immigration issues.