Weak Verification and Loosening of Welfare Reform Rules Alter Longstanding
System of Enforcement and Incentives

By Bob Dane

Current versions of both the House and Senate health care reform bills contain inadequate
verification measures that will fail to prevent millions of illegal aliens from accessing
taxpayer funded health benefits, charges the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR). And in a radical change from current law, both
versions of the bill grant immediate health care benefits to immigrants
currently subject to a 5-year waiting period before they may access most
federal benefits.

FAIR has pledged to try to block these proposals: “If powerful special
interests prevail, the final version of a health care reform bill will have
been used to transform immigration policies as aggressively as it was used to
transform the U.S. health care system itself,” says Dan Stein, President of
FAIR.

FAIR states that narrow special interests such as the National Council of La
Raza and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have been pushing hard to include
sweeping changes to immigration policy within the health care reform bill – no
limits to eligibility and immediate access for everyone regardless of status.
“They never know when enough is enough,” says Stein.

While FAIR takes no official position on the overall bill, The Affordable
Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), the group contends that health care
legislation should be “immigration neutral,” not a vehicle to reverse
longstanding immigration polices. Not properly checking the citizenship status
of those applying for benefits, and granting instant access to legal residents
still bound by their 5-year waiting period for benefits, shatters the
integrity of a system based on penalties and incentives.

Background: The verification measures to stop ineligible aliens from accessing
benefits under the House health care reform bill still contain loopholes for
fraud and abuse. While those claiming to be non-citizens will be checked
through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, the
verification mechanism recommended for those who claim to be citizens is a
new, untested system that does not require supporting documentation. This is
a massive loophole. FAIR urges Congress to instead mandate use of an existing
verification model, approved by Congress in 2005, which requires that
individuals claiming to be citizens first present citizenship documentation
before receiving federal benefits such as Medicaid.

In addition to eligibility verification deficiencies, providing immediate
access to federal health benefits for immigrants threatens to dismantle one of
the original reforms of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act (PRWORA or Welfare Reform). The Act created a 5-year
waiting period before new immigrants can access “Federal means-tested public
benefits” and required that a person petitioning for an alien’s admission must
sign an affidavit promising financial support to the alien. In addition to
reducing overall federal outlays, the policy was designed to protect American
taxpayers by ensuring legal immigrants do not become public charges by
immediately taking advantage of benefits upon their arrival in the United
States.

The policy has been one of the very few sensible reforms made to an
immigration system that is otherwise in chaos. Yet, both the House and Senate
versions of the health care reform bill specify that taxpayer subsidies are
not subject to the 5-year waiting period, thus allowing legal aliens to
immediately access benefits at a cost to American taxpayers of at least $33.8
billion during the 2014-2019 budget period. Unless, this provision is removed,
FAIR believes this will establish a dramatic and costly precedent to eliminate
the 5-year waiting period for virtually every federal benefit.

“Neglecting verification loopholes that reward those who have no legal right
to be here, and offering instant benefits to people the day they get their
green cards is costly health care policy, and even worse immigration policy,”
charged Stein. “It’s unimaginable that Congress is making vast
transformational changes to our immigration system under cover of a health
care reform bill that is already a politically risky bill for lawmakers. House
members should be irate at party leadership for having loaded this bill with
immigration changes that most Americans will vehemently oppose.”

About FAIR
Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country’s largest immigration reform group. With
over 250,000 members nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that
serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that
immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy,
protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is
recognized and enforced.