Columnist Discusses Undocumented Immigrants, Government-Funded Health Programs

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 15 Sep 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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"Conservative politicians often portray government programs as a magnet to [undocumented immigrants], but almost never as an incentive to enforce America's immigration laws," Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop writes. According to Harrop, "In this country, threadbare government benefits are an essential element of the cheap-labor economy," and undocumented immigrants "provide low-cost labor and suppress the wages of workers who must compete with them, be they native born or legal immigrants."

Harrop adds that undocumented immigrants do not "have a government program, but they can show up in the nation's emergency rooms" and receive care that is "free for them" but still is paid for by taxpayer-funded subsidies and by higher health insurance premiums. Those who "pay most of the resulting costs are unskilled workers and the local governments that must provide services to people who contribute little to their coffers," Harrop adds.

She continues, "But suppose the federal government guaranteed health coverage for all workers and their families. Wouldn't that make open borders a far more expensive proposition than it is now? It would." However, Harrop writes that beyond the "particulars" of arguments for or against a government-run health care system "lies this argument: The more generous the social safety net, the more essential that the people using it are here legally and making enough money to help pay the costs" (Harrop, Providence Journal, 9/11).

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