Gov. Jerry Brown Signs SB-10; Bill Heads to Alien-Friendly D.C. for Final Okay

Californians May Soon be Paying Billions of Dollars for Illegal Alien Health Care
 

California State Sen. Richard Lara has insisted from the get go that SB-10, the bill Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed which allows the state’s illegal aliens to participate in the Affordable Care Act pending federal approval, wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. The original ACA legislation expressly banned alien participation. But Sacramento rarely lets federal immigration law stop it from enacting alien-friendly state laws.

Brown notches another illegal alien entitlement on his belt.

Posting on immigrationreform.com, researcher Spencer Raley, however, drew a different conclusion than Lara. Because the Obama administration is likely to give its blessing to the so-called innovation waiver that will make alien enrollment possible, about 390,000 Californians living in the state unlawfully would be able to apply for health care through the state-managed ACA marketplace. But since illegal immigrants earn on average 28 percent less than American families, insurance will be unaffordable for most.
 
The average federal subsidy is $3,300. But SB-10 bans aliens from receiving federal monies. That would leave California’s taxpayers to underwrite illegal immigrants’ health care coverage. Raley pegs taxpayers’ outlay to reach between $1.3 billion and $2 billion annually. SB-10 is the latest example of Brown and the legislature putting illegal immigrant advocacy ahead of California’s common good, and billing taxpayers for their largess.
 
In his May press release which addressed California’s economy, Brown said that while he anticipates that the state’s budget will remain balanced for the next two years, in the following years “the state’s commitments will exceed expected revenues with annual shortfalls forecasted to exceed $4 billion by 2019 – or worse with an economic slowdown or recession.”
 
California may or may not experience an economic downturn, but within the next few years – by 2020 – the California Department of Finance expects that the state population will have increased from today’s 39 million-plus to an even more unsustainable 41.7 million residents, many of which will be poor, SB-10-eligible illegal immigrants, assuming Health and Human Services okays the waiver.