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 151-180 of 303 total comments.
Cheap shot? Like yelling that the President is a liar during a speech to congress? Like that kind of cheap shot?
yeah or like a president lying to the entire country, that would never happen, he would never be forgiven or another chance…oh wait, we already did that to. Wilson was wrong,no question, but he has done a lot of good in his state.
I think what’s absurd is that I voted for Obama, and I agree we need health care reform, but I don’t think his plan is the best we can do, and I am automatically called a racist. I just don’t get it, I guess it’s just as bad as people voting for him or against him solely based on his skin color.
It looks to me like most of the comments to this artivle miss the point completely.
NONE OF THE CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROPOSALS PAY FOR SERVICES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. JOE WILSON WAS WRONG AND STILL IS. Besides that, the manner in which he expressed his wrongness was disrespectful and deplorable at best.
Allowing EVERYONE, including illegal immigrants (with no subsidy) to buy coverage, actually solves the problem of ANYONE having to pay for their treatment, as we do now through state and federal grants as well as higher insurance premiums.
Conservatives would abviously slit their own political throats and damn America before admitting they are wrong on ANYTHING. In this debate, the blood is flowing freely.
There is no requirements to check citizenship in the Democrat bill, so illegals could sign up if they want.
Typical behavior, same old story.
I guess you haven’t been following the news. This is being fixed as we type. You…it seems also lie.
They SHOULD be allowed to buy insurance since it saves us all a lot of money and would free up the ER’s for emergency’s. Since the GOP hates, hates, hates the thought of helping someone, the legislators put a clause in the bills making sure they would not be entitled to SUBSIDIZED insurance. Man, simple english really needs to be remedially taught to Americans. LauraNo
Fellow liberals, ever feel like we’re wasting our breath? — when you read “there is no requirements to check citizenship,” you ought to know with whom you’re dealing. If someone has no grasp of written English, it is highly unlikely they have read the bill. Or much else.
god forbid the PAY insurance companies for insurance
its not like they are getting it for free, they ALREADY pay for insurance from companies
you people are so dense
Actually, there is. You are required to give your social security number as proof of citizenship. That’s an easy one to check too.
Moderated Comment
There is no enableing legislation at all. All that exists is an overview. This is a preliminary bill. However Obama said he WILL not ( in the future) sign a bill that makes illegal aliens eligible. Now exactly how does Wilson “know” what Obama will do in the future. The idiot had evidence that Obama plans to sign a bill that makes illegal aliens eligible? Sheesh, you Wilson supporters can’t read minds any more that your hero Wilson the liar can.
If i’m not mistaken whenever someone signs up for anything they are asked for a social security number, not to mention the fact they have to provide identification. So the poster that says under the democrats bill doesn’t require someone to prove citizenship, what planet do you live on? Because obviously if someone didn’t have to prove citizenship we wouldn’t have so many people making phony ids.
Rep. Wilson was wrong in his assessment as anyone can read within the language of the bill. This does assume that the government will put appropriate safeguards in place. If a measure is not explicitly spelled out, don’t take it for granted that it will occur especially with an election year approaching. I will have to take the author to task, approving monies to help hospitals cover unpaid bills is not the same as giving healthcare to undocumented immigrants.
The use of the dehumanizing word “illegals” shows the thought process of those who use it seriously. The truth of the matter is that the man knows he was wrong and tried to make political hay by trying to kill it. He cares less about illegal immigrants getting healthcare than just trying to make sure the bill fails.
Conservatives have their heads in the sand. Either way we pay for illegals, whether you provide them with care or they continue using emergency room care. It’s disingenuous to claim your are taking a principled stand when you know the burden is there and they are receiving care now. The problem is the current way costs more, with them waiting until they absolutely need care for some life threatening problem that might have been stemmed had they had access to health care like everyone else. Sure, keep pretending they don’t exist.
Moderated Comment
Ah, hypocrisy is in bloom.
Like I said on Wednesday evening, Wilson is a IDIOT.
Joe Wilson is an evil, hateful, ignorant racist sorry excuse of a human being. Enough said.
really? you must know him and all the things he has done to screw the troops and make it as hard on them as possible. The man was wrong without doubt. But you have no clue about the man, except for one situation,and you automatically go to evil and hateful and racist. You’ve probably never done anything wrong in your life and regretted it. I’m sure you felt the same way when Clinton disrespected the office of the presidency and then lied to your face about it. My gosh, we showed that man grace, but b/c Wilson is an evil right wing wack job we put him in the same class as the towel heads who’s aim is to kill American’s? I just don’t get all the hatred from Dems and Republicans.
HAHAHA, Wilson is a clown. The republicans can’t offer anything but lies and obstruction. They are pimples on the ass of progress.
And you guys who are asking these repugs to read the bill. That’s the problem. They don’t read. They listen to Rush and Hannity and watch the bimbos and Bill on Fox.
the republican/conservatives will not be happy till they have set up death panels for the illegal immigrants.
He is pathetic
Well, perhaps the ones they hire at sub minimum wage with no rights will be excused, as long as they don’t expect to be paid.
How sad we are arguing whether or not to treat people who are sick or injured. The culture of hatred and indifference for our fellow man is shameful. Is there any way to rise above this and create real change. Do we have the courage? Will we be measured by our mean and unsophisticated treatment of fellow humans? Our past civilization was measured by slavery, women not voting, unfettered greed. Are we really that frightened of change to make a difference?
Wilson has absolutely no integrity. Anyone who is supporting him has no integrity.
If Wilson cared so much about Presidents telling the truth, he would have called out Bush numerous times. But he doesn’t, so he didn’t. And if he were against public dollars being spent on healthcare for illegal aliens, he would have a consistent record of voting against such expenditures. If he cared at all about doing the best for his country, he wouldn’t take so much money from Big Pharma.
The pundits are afraid to speak the truth on this, but I’m not. Joe Wilson is a scumbag. By that, I mean a liar, a scoundrel, and a racist.
I have integrity…I just gave Rep. Joe Wilson $25 tonight and I don’t even live in his state.
You know, I heard that his opponent is getting three times as much in donations since the incident.
From my understanding of the bill, the bill will only provide treatment of illegal in life-threatening or dangerous situations, where it would be extremely immoral to simply dump them on the streets.