by Jack Lee
Take heart folks, times can’t be that bad! I know because States like California, New York and Pennsylvania are so fat with money they can afford to pay for health care for illegal aliens.
Things like dental, skilled nursing and prenatal are still generously cover by us, however Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick said today that their State’s 31,000 legal immigrants would no longer be fully covered and that some premium services will have to be cut! Oh, no! They are the first the only four rich States that provide illegal immigrants with free health care services that have gone broke trying to support them.
“Patrick said his administration had struggled to find a solution “that preserves the promise of health care reform” after the state legislature cut most of the $130 million it had previously allotted immigrants, to help close a budget deficit. Although their health benefits will be sharply curtailed in some cases, Mr. Patrick portrayed the new program as a victory, saying the services that the affected group tends to use the most will still be covered.”
The new plan, which will cover permanent residents who have had green cards for less than five years, will cost the state $40 million a year. Some of the affected immigrants will be charged higher co-payments and will have to find new doctors, said Leslie A. Kirwan, Mr. Patrick’s finance director. Gov. Deval Patrick said 31,000 legal immigrants would no longer be covered by some premium services.
We have roughly 2.7 million illegal residents in California and if it was left up to our increasingly pro-Hispanic legislature they would throw open the border and take in millions more. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 7% of the state’s population are now illegals.
State officials estimate that they add between $4 billion and $6 billion in costs, primarily for prisons and jails, schools and emergency rooms. Beyond those services, the illegal population adds to the overall cost of other parts of local government, from police and fire protection to highway maintenance and libraries.
Currently there are 6.3 million public school students and this includes about 300,000 illegals, we don’t know for sure because the schools don’t ask. The illegal students cost us about $7,626 each and the total comes to nearly $2.3 billion.