Does the Government Health Plan Insure Illegal Aliens?

When Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelled, "You lie," during President Barack Obama's 2009 health care address to Congress and a national television audience, he was responding to the President's assertion that the government health care plan would not cover undocumented immigrants. When Wilson later discovered that it was he -- and not the President -- who had gotten the facts wrong, the congressman apologized for his "inappropriate and regrettable" comments, spirited as they were.

The Facts

• According to FactCheck.com, Section 246 of the health care legislation, titled "No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens" specifically states that federal payments in the form of "affordability credits," which would be made available to United States citizens and those who are in the country legally, will not be made to those in the country illegally. In other words, no federal subsidies to help low-income residents purchase health insurance will be offered to undocumented aliens.

Enforcement

• Republicans did have a somewhat more legitimate complaint, however, with the legislation's lack of specific enforcement provisions to keep undocumented aliens from illicitly receiving federal subsidies for health care. Because the legislation contains no verification protocol, they claim, undocumented aliens could use the loophole to get subsidies illicitly. Republican Congressman Dean Heller proposed an amendment to the legislation that would have instituted the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system that is used for Social Security, but the amendment did not make it out of the House Ways and Means committee.

Penalties

• If undocumented aliens did attempt to illegitimately obtain payments by misrepresenting their immigration status, the penalties could be severe. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, making a fraudulent claim to obtain money from an entitlement program is a serious offense, but doing so while misrepresenting one's immigration status can be even worse because of the added immigration penalties available to the prosecution, including deportation.

Undocumented Aliens and Social Security

• The controversial issue of illegal immigrants' drain on government services was turned on its head in a 2005 "New York Times" story, "Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions." According to the story, undocumented immigrants using phony Social Security cards are contributing approximately $7 billion per year in withheld Social Security taxes, but because of their illegal status, they will not become future Social Security beneficiaries. The Social Security Administration hopes to one day discover who is contributing the money, but until then, undocumented immigrants will continue to subsidize Social Security.