Blog - Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare 
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Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare
September 11, 2009 - by Donny Shaw
On Wednesday night, Rep. Joe Wilson [R, SC-2], shouted “You lie!” at President Obama when he said that the healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. “The supporters of the government takeover of healthcare and liberals who want to give healthcare to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan,” Wilson said the next day in a campaign fundraising video.
However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. The program has been extended through 2009 and there is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress to make it permanent.
Hospitals have a legal obligation to treat everyone who comes in seeking care, regardless of citizenship status, insurance or other characteristics. This means that hospitals treat millions of people every year who don’t have the means to pay. Obviously, this drives up the nation’s healthcare costs overall. Section 1011 helps cushion the costs for hospitals, but it’s not nearly enough to cover the actual costs in most areas.
To be fair, Section 1011 is just a small part of a much larger bill that contained many Republican priorities. Still, Wilson’s protest against the current healthcare reform proposal giving coverage to illegal immigrants (which is false), is in direct contradiction to his 2003 vote. Allowing illegal immigrants to purchase unsubsidized healthcare through the Exchange that would be set up under the current proposal wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent, and it would be a step towards fixing the problem that Section 1011 was designed to throw federal money at.
Here are a few more links on Wilson and the healthcare reform bill:
- Wilson’s OpenCongress profile
- Wilson’s OpenCongress Wiki page
- The House healthcare bill
- The line in the bill blocking subsidies for illegal immigrants
- The healthcare bill’s tax increases
- 5 major lies about the healthcare bill debunked
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Comments
Displaying 1-30 of 311 total comments.
Moderated Comment
Not sure how you put 2 and 2 together here. Wilson’s vote authorized the hospitals to be reimbursed for something they were already legally obligated to do. There’s a difference.
This article is a case of totally irresponsible journalism. Shaw fails to mention that there’s a big difference between hospital/emergency care for illegals vs. providing them with health care “insurance” which is what the liberals want and it’s spelled out in the 14 July 2009 copy of H.R. 3200. Obama was the only liar on 9 Sep 2009.
H.R. 3200 would not provide health care for illegal immigrants.
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1210-Read-the-Bill-Illegal-Immigrants-Are-NOT-Covered
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/09/joe-wilson/joe-wilson-south-carolina-said-obama-lied-he-didnt/
Sect. 246 of H.R. 3200 specifically states “No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits.”
You lie, you’re a liar…..wait… you’re a Rethug, duh! Of course you lie. You have no idea how to tell the truth!
You are incorrect. It says that it will not provide benefits to illegals but it does not have provisions for any ID verification for benefits and the Democrats have voted down every GOP amendment that specifies it so in fact, although the language says it won’t ….. it will provide benefits that we pay for to be provided to people who are here illegally.
Moderated Comment
You are a racist. A bigot. And not too bright to boot. Single payer means that EVERYONE is discriminated against. Tell me how it so smart to have one all powerful entity, i.e. federal government, in charge of your well being instead of several businesses competing for it? What the hell do you think our cars would be like if the only choice we had was one the government made for us? I guess we could check what they were like in Russia about 30 years ago.
Maybe with gov health care someone can be assigned to give you calls in the morning to remind you to breathe.
“Tell me how it so smart to have one all powerful entity, i.e. federal government, in charge of your well being”
Please read the basics of single payer system first before posting idiotic posts like this.
duh, no one is talking about single payer. that lie was so two months ago.
…Why not give people the same access to health-care that is good enough for gov workers? If socialism works from them, should work for you too??? And lets be real; would you want your kids going to school with kids that couldn’t afford health-care? What about that waiter serving your food, cooking your food, or that nanny picking up your kids; would you want them healthy? But, wait, you can’t afford to pay for those things and the people that can pay for those things; you’re defending and they’re laughing at you, they know you’ll never get what they’ve got and you’re brainless enough to fight for their right to keep it to themselves.
Duh yourself, he never mentioned single-payer.
We do have one pwerful entity, the federal government, controlling every aspect of our health care.
And the programs they run themselves are catastrophic failures. Doctors are underpaid 40% and hospitals 15%. Massive Medicare deficits are now being subsidized by taking 15% of all personal and corporate income taxes (on top of payroll taxes) … with unfunded liabilities of $40 TRILLION.
It will not be long before you are not covered, just watch. If you are covered by an employer you are going to lose your job or your employer is going to stop offering benefits. Try shopping for an individual policy. Those not in favor of a public option are simply ignorant people.
So true! We are not thinking about the affects of having people who do not have access to healthcare being around you with an illness that could be contracted by your kids once you carried germs home with you. Likewise, school children carry germs home with them and if you knew that someone say with Tuberculosis was handling food in the cafeteria, you would want that person to have access to healthcare so that the illness would not be contagious and possibly spread around the school. H1N1 will certainly test our healthcare system this winter, so those who are protesting now may be the one’s praying later for their children to survive this flu and they don’t even know it yet…they don’t care right now, perhaps later they will!
More from Mike in Canada:
Now if you loose or change your job. no problem. Gov’t will subsidize up to 100% of the premium. Hey, that is the entire bill.
In Canada, our unions, our citizens, media, workers, history, laws, banks, our votes.. decide how our health care is administered. Not just the government. We are their masters.
America, your anger is determining your future. And it is shallow and dirty and blind!!!!!!!!!
in Canada, we have THE CANADA HEALTH ACT. this little gem guarantees to every LEGAL RESIDENT, unlimited access to medicine anywhere in Canada. no skin color check, no language limits, no questions asked, no requirement for proof of payment (you reside legally, show your Care Card…. you ride)
Fore!
I am a Canadian and I agree with Mike. I never have to show my credit card or write check or pay cash to see my doctor and I have the same family doctor for the past 15 years.
I would never trades my health care to Americans systems Not in my life time.
Average-income Canadians pay 3 times the taxes as average-income Americans.
That’s why their system has so little medical equiment, long waiting lines, and costs higher than ours. We recover the costs of hospitals and medical equipment in medical feesa. In Canada, those expenses are paid by local property taxes, and never show up as healthcare expenses.
Canadians are justifiably proud of their healthcare system — they just can’t pay taxes high enough to support the level of service we have here.
All those tests Obama wants to cut — those are the same tests which give us a higher cancer survival rate than Canada. That’s a lot of costly testing, of everyone, to make sure YOUR cancer is caught in time. Canadians don’t even have the equipment.
I’m 67 years old. For my entire voting life, politicians have been claiming they could pay for their favorite project of the moment by “reducing waste and fraud.” I’ve never seen it happen, have you?
Are you seriously that ignorant? The Canadian healthcare system gets BETTER results at a LOWER cost than ours.
And no, I don’t think reducing waste and fraud alone is going to come close to paying for anything. That’s why we need a single payer system. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.
Re: Average Canadian income
Mr. Canadian. If you don’t want to trade your health care to the American system, then its best you stay your ass in Canada.
It is greed, lies and deception that has been poisioning and running the country for the last 500 years. It’s unfortunate that President Obama has to clean up this crap.
You do realize that hip replacement surgery owes its existence to Canada, right? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but here’s a little math question for you…
If you pay $100 more in taxes and pay $500 less in insurance premiums, do you have more or less money in your pocket?
By the way, the cancer survival rate you’re quoting has already been debunked. You can thank those very misleading rates to Beth McCaughey, who is, in fact, a health care lobbyist. The other group, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, is headed up by a guy named Rick Scott, who used to head up another health care company until it was revealed that they committed the largest health insurance/Medicare fraud in history. But I’m sure they’re completely unbiased.
Is that why so many Canadians come to America when they need treatment, now? You could’ve fooled me!
Yeah, that must be why our infant mortality rates are so low and our life expectancy is lower… Darn Canadians screwing up our numbers!
The ignorance is yours. That’s what the exchanges are for.
A public option has nothing to do with that.
Individual coverage is required by federal law, for a group as small as 2, which could be you and your spouse. In thirty states,the group can be as small as one – you.
What better results are you citing? Longer life spans? No. Better equipment and/or techniques? No. Just what can you point to that is better? Or for that matter, name three things that are not inferior to its American health-care counterpart.
Americans just want to limit the amount of their lives controlled by the government. For more information on that, see Wikipedia, “American Revolution.”
“Some” Americans want to “limit the amount of their lives controlled by the government.” Over half voted for Obama, a majority want at least a public option for health insurance.
When you reference the American Revolution, are you suggesting taxation without representation? It’s very different now; we have representation. The problem is that we that want affordable health care for everyone don’t have the influence that your apparently beloved insurance giants. They’re the ones who are against insurance reform!
That small difference in the vote for Obama, has now been overridden by " THE CHANGE ". American citizens did not vote for the current proposals being pushed thru capitol hill.
“Try shopping for an individual policy,” you said. I have. I can get health insurance for a lot less than my employer pays, and they don’t even pay 100% of my health insurance. Why don’t you do a little experiment yourself and shop around? Via employer provided insurance you are paying for any chronically ill people who work at the same company, and you are likely paying for Maternity coverage even if you are a single male, or over child-bearing age!
….And you have the gaul to call other people ignorant? Dumba**.
I believe it’s “gall” not “gaul” (see Webster’s)
Even if you can get cheaper insurance than your employer pays, it’s still too much for most people and you have no assurance that you won’t be dropped at any time or have your claims denied or a decision delayed until you are too far gone, as in the following case. (There are better examples than this, but this is most recent in the news.)
Insurers’ delays are ‘almost … like murder,’ Sutton said
The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment….
ANON. ANOTHER LIE……………. this isnt government controlled healthcare! This isnt a single payer system!!! Have you no shame??
Tiring, you keep saying ‘gov run health care’; but your repug senators have no problems using public money and gov run hospitals for their care. Bet your grandma and possibly your parents want that gov run medicare and medicaid; assuming they don’t already have it. Don’t see you telling granny to give that up; hum, bet you also like that fire and police protection; ever get a bill for that, yeah, you did; its called TAXES, its a form of socialism…continued