Many Congressmen, including Alan Mollohan (D-WV 1), Ohio Representatives Charlie Wilson, (D-OH 6) and Zachary Space, (D-OH 18), are telling their constituents that illegal aliens will not be covered by the Health Care bill being considered in Washington. Even President Obama has publicly made these claims. These elected officials are being dishonest.

On July 30 the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted on an amendment by Representative Nathan Deal, Republican from Georgia. The amendment would have required eligibility verification in an effort to reduce fraud and to keep people who are not citizens from taking advantage of the health care bill. The Deal amendment was voted down along party lines with 18 Republicans voting for it and 19 Democrats voting against it including Congressman Zachary Space.

The very next day Congressman Space offered a deceptive amendment (Section 246) to give himself and other local Congressman some cover with their constituents. Charlie Wilson has sited this amendment as proof that illegal aliens will not be covered. According to the Heritage Foundation, “The House bill not only makes a major expansion of Medicaid eligibility but also restricts (in Section 1702) inquiries about immigration status.”

The Space amendment (Section 246) actually guaranteed that people who are not citizens, including illegal aliens, would be able to access free health care.  The Space amendment states:

“Nothing in this title shall change current prohibitions against Federal Medicaid and CHIP payments under titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

The problem with Space’s amendment is: It is a complete sham. According the Heritage Foundation, “H.R. 3200 contains gaping loopholes that will allow illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded benefits. And these loopholes are no accident. The legislation contains no verification mechanism to ensure that illegal immigrants do not apply for benefits”

Dr. James Edwards, co-author of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform puts it this way, “If lawmakers wanted enrolling agents, including bureaucrats at new Health Choices Administration, to use the Systematic Alienage Verification for Entitlements SAVE system, the bill should include a reference and authorize SAVE’s application to this government program”. Not mentioning SAVE was deviously deliberate since the language left out of a bill often dictates the application of a program and defines eligibility. You might call this process permission by omission providing politicians with deniability while keeping their constituents in the dark.

Lost in the complex legal language is the fact that illegal aliens are already using the health care system everyday under the current laws sited by Congressman Space. Dr. Edwards further states, “the silence of H.R. 3200 regarding SAVE and mandatory verification makes Section 246 (Space’s amendment) just empty words.”

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a non-partisan, independent Washington research organization recently released analysis of a report by Dr. Edwards on Health Reform Legislation and Immigration, the CIS states:

“Even legal immigrants whose sponsors are supposed to provide them financial support would be eligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies. Certain legal immigrants who qualify for premium subsidies or expanded Medicaid would also be able to sponsor new immigrants, whom they would have to pledge to support.”

The CIS analysis also reported; “Illegal immigrants would be exempt from the legal mandate to have health insurance, but they’d still receive taxpayer-funded medical services at health clinics and hospitals required to serve all those presenting with medical emergences.” However, American citizens will not be exempt from the legal health insurance mandate thereby giving non-citizens more rights than Americans have. The Space amendment is meaningless in the context of H.R. 3200, but very meaningful in the context of constituent deception.

The deception runs deeper than giving health care to existing non citizens and lying about it. This bill also lays the ground work for millions of new illegal aliens to access our health care system as soon as they arrive in the United States.

There is little concern in Washington about not having a verification system because Congress and the Administration have another plan to cover non-citizens. The CIS analysis summed it up this way; “Of course, the reason the lack of a vetting system is not important to the Obama Administration is that next year’s supposed amnesty would render illegal aliens eligible for the health care anyhow, or as President Obama puts it,” “create a situation where we’re dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don’t have illegal immigrants.”

Providing free health care to illegal aliens in addition to wide spread fraud in the Medicaid and Medicare system is contributing significantly to the high cost of health care in America today. The CIS analysis concludes, “Unless Congress makes every effort to reduce the strain on our health care system caused by illegal immigration any overhaul will be unworkable and unsustainable.”

How could Congressman Space believe he could get away with a stunt like this? With this kind of Congressional deception in play it is very clear the American people need to stand up and make some changes in Washington come election time.