A recipe for failure

House Republicans are once again trying to strap a boulder on the back of undocumented families by pushing for an unreasonable amendment.

The amendment they want to tack on to a House immigration reform bill would require undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance. The problem is that they want the insurance mandate under Obamacare to apply to these immigrants without any of the subsidies that citizens and legal permanent residents have available to them.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week reiterated that undocumented immigrants won’t have access to subsidies, an exclusion that Democrats agreed to during the healthcare reform negotiations Because those affected by this possible immigration overhaul would not have subsidies, then the insurance mandate should not apply, Democrats say.

Undocumented families are between a rock and a hard place. Republicans fought tooth and nail to leave them out of health care reform. Now, under immigration reform, they want to subject them to a health insurance mandate with no supportive resources. Thousands of families would have to wait at least 13 years to be eligible for subsidies. Undocumented families and individuals who can’t really afford it would be forced to pay the rising costs of medical insurance during the entire process. And if Republicans get their way, immigrants who are unable to meet the mandate would lose their place in line while waiting for citizenship.

Requiring immigrants to buy something that is beyond their means is a set up for failure and it is a poor public health policy. And it is shamelessly hypocritical since Republicans to begin with were against the insurance mandate. They called it unconstitutional and said that the government was overreaching its power.

House and Senate Democrats must block this measure. But that’s a short term response to the unresolved question about affordable access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants poised to become legalized.