About Giving Health Care to Undocumented Workers

I can't eat food anymore (4.00 / 3)

that comes from misery and exploitation. But it looks like a majority of our fellow citizens have all sorts of excuses to turn their head the other way. And that's especially true for some of of the weasels in DC who refuse to do the right thing.
For us...AND the people that help pick our food.

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by: LeeN @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 19:04:10 PM UTC

Health Care for ANY Farm Worker (4.00 / 2)

The claim that undocumented workers will get health care under one of the House plans stems from the fact that the House removed a provision that would require individuals to prove citizenship in order to qualify for health care. We all know know how difficult and expensive it will be for any poor person, especially a farm or industrial food worker, to obtain the necessary documents, no matter how many generations their family has been in this country. The opponents of universal health care do not want to have it available to any poor person.

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by: tofumagoo @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 23:36:27 PM UTC

Mexicans might get health insurance from Mexican government (4.00 / 2)

Over at Pandagon.net, Amanda Marcotte writes that the Mexican government has been reforming health insurance in such a way that Mexicans working in the U.S. might be able to have their bills reimbursed by the Mexican government.  In theory that sounds great, but undocumented workers will need to find clinics that are in the reimbursement program and be willing to put their names onto documents that they might fear the INS will be looking at.  Here's hoping that the United Farm Workers and other farm labor advocates spread the word about the Mexican health program.  

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by: mental_masala @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 00:00:57 AM UTC

Healthcare for some undocumented workers (4.00 / 2)

is a reality in some places.  In Center, Colorado, all of the ranch and large farm owners in the Central San Luis Valley put together a fantastic community center designed for those who work in their fields.

When I was there in 2001, there was a clinic that saw to the immediate needs of anyone who walked in, as well as taking care of immunizations for school age children. There was a food pantry, and assistance with rent on an emergency basis, etc...

As politically conservative as southern Colorado is, I was amazed at the level of care given to all of the needs of those who helped make farming a reality there.

And no one needed to show and ID or anything.

Also, come to think of it, I haven't heard of ICE raiding any of the farms or processing centers in the San Luis Valley.

Hmmmmmmm.

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by: Farmboy @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 01:36:32 AM UTC

I think that if we get some kind of public health care (4.00 / 3)

system in this country, anyone who's here will get coverage, citizen or not, legally here or not. While it's true that any health care bill will 'officially' not cover illegal aliens, there's no way to enforce that. My prediction - it will be a "don't ask, don't tell" situation. That way the republicans will get to have their illegal alien exclusion, and the democrats will still be able to deliver the health care to the illegals.

And, for all that there are a lot of illegals working in the fields and packing plants, there are, I think, more working in construction. They, along with the rest of us, have found that construction pays way better with way less work. And in addition to all of that, it's estimated that around 50% of the illegal aliens in this country are regularly hired by private citizens to do day labor on and around their homes.

Everyone in this country is way too dependant on cheap illegal labor to kick the undocumented workers out of this country, close the boarders, or to deny them medical care/insurance if it ever gets put in place here.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 02:42:54 AM UTC

Agreed... (4.00 / 1)

Everyone in this country is way too dependant on cheap illegal labor to kick the undocumented workers out of this country, close the boarders, or to deny them medical care/insurance if it ever gets put in place here.

...but unfortunately the GOP doesn't know which side of the toast has the butter, so when it lands butter-side-down in a pile of turds, they eat it anyway.  If ya know what I mean.

Ignore the movie; the book is SO much better: grab a copy of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.  The Okies he's writing about weren't even immigrants...but he brilliantly describes how the poor were and are treated in this nation.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 08:12:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Dangerous approach. (0.00 / 0)

Including the "touchback" mechanism in the immigration bill was very important to immigrant pressure groups. In the runup to the votes, I challenged a La Raza activist with my idea that the number of Senators who envisioned millions of people, or even hundreds of thousands of people, doing that was exactly zero. She agreed with me. The touchback mechanism was political propaganda. It was hypocritical and dishonest. It also was the heart of the legislation, so the bill became a bogus bill.

I think that health reform legislation should include no bogus provisions. If Congress wants illegals to be folded into the reform, remove the exclusion and say explicitly how the problem will be addressed. If Congress wants to exclude illegals, inserting an exclusion not accompanied by a practical enforcement mechanism is just stupid. This isn't the heart of healthcare reform, but the issue can easily alienate enough congressionals to torpedo the effort - especially if other bogus provisions alienate others not offended by this one.

I cannot honestly say that the stupidity of Representatives and Senators amazes me, but any moderately awake person should have learned some hard lessons from the failure of the immigration reform effort. Such as, don't try to pass a bogus bill. Unfortunately for my philosophy, Congress has since passed legislation that was even more bogus than the immigration bill.

Ah well, I still think including bogus provisions in the legislation is a bad idea.

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by: count @ Mon Sep 14, 2009 at 03:39:51 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

sorry (4.00 / 1)

but you cannot refuse care to anyone that shows up at an ER, and sorry to say again, but he is a liar.  We all lie, so whats the big deal.  have you ever watched parliament debates in england???  yikes, what have americans become,,,,thin skin pansies?  mom always said: sticks and stones can break.....

have a great sunday

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by: wickets @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 10:25:56 AM UTC

Keeping undocs outside the system is an incentive to hire them (4.00 / 1)

Ezra Klein points to an Andrew Romano piece in Newsweek that makes an interesting observation about health care and undocumented immigrants: "...employers currently have a clear economic incentive to hire undocumented immigrants: They don't require coverage. A plan that mandates insurance for native workers but not their illegal counterparts actually makes life harder on the blue-collar Americans competing for jobs (and railing against immigrants) because it means that hiring them will cost more than hiring a recent transplant from Mexico City."

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by: mental_masala @ Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 06:56:08 AM UTC

Aside from the rightness or wrongness (0.00 / 0)

of arguments for one group or the other...

As a practical matter, if such things as reducing the costs of emergency room medicine and better controlling communicable diseases are goals of healthcare reformation, keeping undocs outside the system isn't very sensible.

Thoughtful observation by Romano, thanks.

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by: count @ Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 12:19:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]