California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill—subject to Washington’s approval—that allows undocumented immigrants to buy unsubsidized health insurance through the state’s Obamacare exchange, known as Covered California.
And the only question worth asking—the one that no one in the media seems to be asking—is what’s Brown REALLY up to?
The only reason to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange is to get taxpayer-subsidized coverage; 86 percent of those in the exchanges receive subsidies.
Obamacare prohibits illegal immigrants from getting taxpayer subsidies, so why would they need access to the exchange?
Obamacare’s health insurance reforms, such as requiring companies to accept anyone, apply to all qualified policies, whether bought through the exchange or directly from the insurance company—say, through an insurance agent.
The Obamacare-approved policies available outside of the exchange are just as expensive, with the same extremely high deductibles and very narrow networks as those in the exchange.
And by avoiding the exchange, there is less risk that a hacker will steal someone’s personal information, as they already have several million government employees because the government is so bad at security.
More importantly, Obamacare doesn’t require illegals to have health insurance—lucky them. And so they are free to buy much more affordable non-approved coverage. You know, like all Americans used to be able to buy before President Obama took away that freedom.
And then there is the exploding price of exchange-based coverage.
The Pew Research Center found that illegal immigrant households made about $36,000 a year, compared to $50,000 for the median household income (2007).
While that study is old, the numbers likely haven’t changed much. Using the Kaiser Foundation Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator, the national average premium for a family of four—two adults age 30—is $7,847 a year for the least expensive Bronze plan.
How many people making $36,000 a year would spend $8,000 on health insurance?
So what’s Brown’s game?
This is the left’s camel’s-nose-under-the-tent effort to get taxpayers subsidizing coverage for undocumented aliens. Hillary Clinton has already called for it.
Once illegals are allowed to join the exchange and none of them do so, Democrats will complain it’s because they can’t afford it and so they deserve to be subsidized too.
In pushing through Obamacare, Obama made a big deal of the fact that illegals would not have access to taxpayer subsidies. That was only a ruse to get the law passed. Now the left is moving forward with its real agenda.