Fight Brewing With Schwarzenegger Over Illegal Immigrants

"Why does California insist on creating more magnets for illegal immigrants? And why must our governors be agents for Mexico?" - Joe Guzzardi, in a column at vdare.com with the headline: "Schwarzenegger sells out on health care for illegals.

It's becoming clear the biggest resistance Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will face on his health care plan from his own party will be over providing health care for illegal immigrants. GOP members in the California Assembly and Senate are ready to fight him even before the plan is unveiled. Said Sen. Dave Cox: "We are not the health maintenance organization for Mexico."

Schwarzenegger seems to be focusing on easing the burden on hospitals for providing emergency care for illegal immigrants, which is a somewhat younger population compared to the average California resident and who frequently use emergency rooms as their primary medical office. The federal government already reimburses border state hospitals for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants, but medical providers feel burdened.

The actual taxpayer cost of providing health care to illegal immigrants is the subject of continuous debate, but the amounts would not break the bank. A Rand Corp. study found the cost for treating illegal immigrant adults in the U.S. was a paltry $1.1 billion, the L.A. Times' Evelyn Larrubia reported recently. That figure seems low, she writes, since the cost for California alone is higher than that:

"California's Medi-Cal program covered $946 million in services for impoverished illegal immigrants, including coverage for emergencies, prenatal care, limited cancer treatment, abortions and nursing home care. In 2003, Los Angeles County estimated that it spent $340 million on public hospital and clinic care for illegal immigrants not covered by Medi-Cal.

"But those figures include costs for children and the elderly, who were excluded from the Rand study. Also, the Rand data were collected in 2000 and the number of illegal immigrants in California has swelled in the five years since then, as have healthcare costs."

Either way, the question remains: Should California spend about 1% of its budget on health care for people who came here illegally? Expect to hear the word "compassion" a lot next year.