Children's Health Insurance Program legistlation will lift the ban for new legal immigrants
13 01 09 - 12:11
Children's Health Bill Aids Legal Immigrants
By LAURA MECKLER - The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Democrats are using an early vote on a children's health-care bill to advance a longstanding effort in the more controversial area of immigration.
A bill renewing the Children's Health Insurance Program is expected to pass Congress easily and is being teed up to give President-elect Barack Obama an early victory.said.
The bill, similar to a version that President George W. Bush vetoed, would renew and provide more funding for a program that subsidizes insurance to children in lower-income families. Unlike the earlier version, the bill is expected to lift a provision in place for more than a decade that bars legal immigrant children and pregnant women from federal health programs during their first five years in the U.S.
Mr. Obama, who sponsored legislation lifting the ban when he was in the Senate, supports doing so now.
About 400,000 children would be newly eligible for federal health programs under the change, according to estimates by Leighton Ku, a health-policy professor at George Washington University.
The move signals the willingness of the new Congress and incoming White House to take on immigration issues, building on strong support for Democrats in recent elections from the Latino community. While further immigration proposals have stirred strong grass-roots opposition, congressional leaders are betting that it's an easy political sell to provide health care for children who are in the country legally.
Immigrant advocates are hoping the Obama administration and new Congress will go on to tackle bigger measures. Mr. Obama has pledged to try again for a comprehensive immigration bill that had been supported by Mr. Bush but failed in the last Congress. It's unclear, however, how high a priority that is for Mr. Obama, who has placed greater urgency on issues such as economic stimulus, health care and climate change.
The ban on immigrant benefits dates to 1996. It originally was written into legislation overhauling the nation's welfare programs. Legal immigrants were restricted or banned from aid programs including cash welfare, disability, food stamps and Medicaid.
Supporters argued that immigrants' sponsors agree when they are admitted to the U.S. to support them if need be so they shouldn't have to rely on government programs. When the Children's Health Insurance Program was created in 1997, the rules for Medicaid were applied to the new program.
Immigration advocates and their allies in Congress have since tried to overturn these rules, with some success. For instance, Congress allowed all immigrant children to qualify for food stamps starting in 2003.
The children's health bill to be considered soon by the House will lift the ban on both the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid for legal immigrant children and pregnant women, said two House aides involved in the legislation. That will give states the option to include them in their programs, but it won't require it.
Aides said they are confident they have enough votes to pass the bill and think that, substance aside, the issue works for them politically.
"Of all the immigration issues, this is a good one," said one Democratic aide.
In the Senate, the legislation is being crafted by the Finance Committee. Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) has said he wants the ban lifted, though it isn't clear whether he is committed to including the provision in the bill he presents to his committee. At a meeting last week, some Republicans voiced concerns about the immigration provision, but none threatened to withhold their support based on the issue, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Some Republican opponents of the provision oppose the underlying legislation anyway. But the move could lose Democrats other Republican votes. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the committee, continues to support the ban, aides said. One Grassley aide added that if this provision makes it to the final legislation, "it'll be difficult for many Republicans to support final passage."
The Finance Committee plans to have legislation introduced this week, with a vote soon after.
Immigrant advocates are hopeful that the ban will be eliminated and that the victory will help make the case that pro-immigration action can be a political winner, said Jennifer Ng'andu of the advocacy group National Council of La Raza.
"We consider this the first real test of the new administration and the Congress," she