US Health Bill could benefit 6.6 million Illegals at a cost of up to $30.5 billion to taxpayers, CIS report shows

As US President Barrack Obama addresses the nation on health care reform, a new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants could receive benefits under the House health reform bill (HR 3200). While the bill states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the new taxpayer-funded affordability credits, there is nothing in the bill to enforce this provision. Congress defeated efforts to require the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. More than 70 other programs of this kind use SAVE.

The report is available at http://www.cis.org/IllegalsAndHealthCareHR3200. Among its findings:

In 2007, there were an estimated 6.6 million illegal immigrants without health insurance who had incomes below 400 percent of poverty, which is the income ceiling for the new affordability premium credits. If all uninsured illegal immigrants with incomes below 400% of poverty received the new credits, the estimated cost to the federal government would be $30.5 billion annually.

The current cost of treating uninsured illegal immigrants at all levels of government is an estimated $4.3 billion a year, primarily at emergency rooms and free clinics.

On July 16 an amendment by Representative Dean Heller (Republican, Nevada) that would have required the use of the SAVE program to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving the affordability credits was defeated by the House Ways and Means Committee.