For Democrats, succoring illegals and doling out nationalized "free" health care are signature issues. What better way to enact that agenda than to offer California's abundant illegal aliens free state health care?
That's the scheme they've cooked up, in their relentless push to make California a West Coast imitation of socialist Venezuela. It's so bad that it's likely to draw California voters toward Republicans.
Here's what's going on, from Politico's Victoria Colliver:
California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border.The proposal – which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown's 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status – is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care.
Up until now, it would probably go over slightly negatively in ordinary times, with many Californians nodding and moving on.
But there's a second factor: in the gig economy, Californians are paying for Obamacare insurance in house-sized payments, as well as losing their privacy in the process (telemarketers are having a field day), while illegal aliens, with zero papers, can now come on over here, and if their incomes are at a certain legal (such incomes can be as high as around $50,000 a year for a family of four in this program), they can sign up for the California medical welfare known as Medi-Cal and get a free ride. No deductibles, no drug costs, no out-of-pocket, and full dental and vision care for adults, plus a wide, wide network of top-notch doctors who will care for their every need.
Not one of these things is available to Californians trapped in the nightmare of Obamacare's individual markets, with its gigantic costs, monster out-of-pocket payments, gargantuan deductibles, narrow networks, shutout from important HMO networks that provide top care, meager choice of doctors, zero dental care except to pay for other people's children, larded up drug-addict rehab costs even if you are not and never will be a drug addict, padded premiums from pregnancy costs even if you will never be pregnant, and other huge costs embedded in those Obamacare bills.
That's what makes this free medical care for illegals plan such bad stuff, a terrible incentive that rewards those who thumb their noses at the law and penalizes further those who must live above board in the actual California system.
The bill's author, Sen. Ricardo Lara – a guy who got his high office by representing 652,106 voting-age adults in his district of 926,972 people, got into his office with all of 177,971 voting for him, about a 27% turnout if all of those voters were registered to vote – uses the logic that if President Trump won't legalize illegal aliens, it's no reason why his state can't get health care "right." As one of his allies put it: "But just because we have bad immigration policy does not mean we shouldn't have good health policy." Lara himself also claims that since illegals are already flooding emergency rooms, might as well pay for their full ride on health care since we are already paying.
If Lara were a normal politico, his logic would be to help Californians forced into the nightmare of Obamacare, but given that he's a leftist, one can rest assured, such people will never be helped because keeping them poor through the high cost of Obamacare is state policy – and beggars are easier to please. Much easier to get illegals on the string, attract more of them, eventually make them voters, and then raise taxes as the system gets further overwhelmed. He'll feel good about himself and get new Democratic voters to boot. Since Californians have always accepted the heavy burden of Obamacare, they'll be easy to hit up for more taxes to pay for the $3 billion he calculates will be needed for illegals' new free ride. (Rest assured: that $3 billion will rise as the state becomes a magnet for free health care, not just from other states, but from other countries.)
As a Californian, it's natural for me to think the bill's passage is far-fetched, given the magnitude of this cost and the outrageous gift it amounts to for lawbreakers over the law-abiding.
But this is California, and the one-party state is capable of anything, actually, because of what it already has shown it can do.
This is why it's quite likely to rouse support for a change of course in the state's ruling apparatus among voters, as an analyst consulted for the Colliver piece brings up.
"It would give Republicans relevance in California they would never have before," said David McCuan, a political analyst and political science professor at Sonoma State University. He suggested the proposal would energize Republican voters, who make up a quarter of the electorate, as well as conservative-leaning unaffiliated voters.
This is on target.
Contrary to the legends dating from the George W. Bush era, California is not a solid blue state. There's still a lot of Reagan country left in it.
It does have a gerrymandered state composition and a ruling elite in the legislature that rewards districts that have few people who can vote (read: high illegal counts), but even that's not unbreakable. The fact that it has many conservative representatives in Congress and an active rebellion of mostly Southern California cities to the state's sanctuary state movement suggests that at least some voters are not willing to put up with solid socialism and the incentivization of lawbreaking.
In fact, this free health care for illegals while we pay through the nose idea pretty well looks like a tipping point. Colliver reports that some are thinking it will galvanize California voters to support the gubernatorial campaign of conservative John Cox, a tough guy who openly supports President Trump and who's now third in the polls. (That third placement is problematic as it signals he may not make the runoff after the June 5 primary. The withdrawal for the other Republican candidate, Travis Allen, perhaps with a promise of a good job in a Cox governorship, is getting rather important.)
Right now, with this health care for illegals scheme, the road has never looked smoother for Cox to take the governor's slot. It's so strong that it ought to be called a campaign contribution to the Cox campaign, given the number of people looking for relief from Obamacare and the salt this shifting of resources represents on that wound.
There's a clarity forming with this free health care scheme for illegals, and the ground is clear for it to sink in with the electorate as the leftward slide of the state continues. With this outrageous scheme on the table, there's a good chance going forward now that Cox can win – simply because he must.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/05/with_free_health_care_for_illegals_scheme_california_democrats_hand_a_big_contribution_to_the_gops_cox_campaign.html
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