Updated: Sept 13, 2009 added video
by Donny Shaw
OpenCongress
September 11, 2009
On Wednesday night, Rep. Joe Wilson [R, SC-2], shouted “You lie!” at President Obama when he said that the healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. “The supporters of the government takeover of healthcare and liberals who want to give healthcare to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan,” Wilson said the next day in a campaign fundraising video.
However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. The program has been extended through 2009 and there is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress to make it permanent.
Hospitals have a legal obligation to treat everyone who comes in seeking care, regardless of citizenship status, insurance or other characteristics. This means that hospitals treat millions of people every year who don’t have the means to pay. Obviously, this drives up the nation’s healthcare costs overall. Section 1011 helps cushion the costs for hospitals, but it’s not nearly enough to cover the actual costs in most areas.
To be fair, Section 1011 is just a small part of a much larger bill that contained many Republican priorities. Still, Wilson’s protest against the current healthcare reform proposal giving coverage to illegal immigrants (which is false), is in direct contradiction to his 2003 vote. Allowing illegal immigrants to purchase unsubsidized healthcare through the Exchange that would be set up under the current proposal wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent, and it would be a step towards fixing the problem that Section 1011 was designed to throw federal money at.
Here are a few more links on Wilson and the healthcare reform bill:
- Wilson’s OpenCongress profile
- Wilson’s OpenCongress Wiki page
- The House healthcare bill
- The line in the bill blocking subsidies for illegal immigrants
- 5 major lies about the healthcare bill debunked
Read all blog posts here, or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with what’s really happening in Congress.
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Updated
Lie to Say Illegals Not Insured by Health Reform?
LiberalViewer
September 13, 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.
When South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted out “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform last week, most reasonable people rejected the outburst, but I was surprised to see how much time Fox News spent giving intellectual support to the accusation and particularly surprised to see that support coming from Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, as I explain in this video.
The public domain video of President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform last week from which I took a clip for this video is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJugL…
The 3 clips of Judge Andrew Napolitano are from Fox News’ “Your World with Neil Cavuto” broadcast on September 10, 2009 which I have not been able to find online.
The image of title 8 section 1611 of the US Code which I show in this video comes from the Cornell webpage at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/u…
The image of the ACLU of Sacramento letter I show in this video comes from the webpage at http://aclusac.org/node/149
And, finally, as always, you can find DOZENS and DOZENS more examples of Fox News bias on my Fox News bias playlist on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…
see
Mad as Hell Docs Head to Salt Lake City
Real Time With Bill Maher: Anthony Weiner + New Rules
Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment: Joe Wilson, You’re Wrong!
Health Care or Insurance Care – Take Your Pick by Dennis Kucinich
Riz Khan: The battle for US healthcare – Is healthcare really a right or a privilege?
Obama’s Speech To Congress: The Public Option + Health Reform Speech + transcript
Dandelion Salad 
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