“What we are trying to prevent is anyone who is here illegally from getting any federal benefit,’’ said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, a member of the “Gang of Six’’ of three Democratic and three Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee.
The White House says that Obama does not want illegal immigrants to be able to buy insurance through the new purchasing exchange he proposes. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday that the administration will work with lawmakers on language to enforce that.
The House health bill expressly prohibits federal subsidies for illegal immigrants, but critics note that there are no enforcement mechanisms or language on how to verify whether someone is in this country legally.
“Without a verification requirement it’s essentially like posting a 55-mile-per-hour speed limit and not having any highway patrol on the road,’’ said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Democrats in two House committees defeated amendments that would have required verification of legal status, saying such measures create barriers to legal residents getting the health coverage they need.
The Senate negotiators are facing a deadline early next week to produce a bipartisan deal. If they don’t succeed, committee Chairman Max Baucus plans to go it alone with a Democratic bill.
Baucus’s plan largely mirrors what Obama laid out in his speech Wednesday night: expansion of coverage to most of the nearly 50 million uninsured, new requirements for individuals to obtain insurance, new prohibitions against insurance company practices such as denying coverage based on personal health history, and creation of the new exchange where consumers could shop among different health plans.
A successful effort could form the basis for legislation that could appeal to a majority in the Senate since the Finance Committee has a moderate makeup that resembles the Senate as a whole.
