Free Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants Must Be Curtailed, Syndicated Columnist Writes

The United States has become the "land of the limitless health care handout" for undocumented immigrants, even as its "indigent senior citizens ... must abide by stricter limits, fewer choices and rising prices," nationally syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. Malkin cites cases of undocumented immigrants receiving free hospital care in several states, including North Carolina, where the Medicaid emergency services program averages 221 new cases involving such immigrants each month, at a cost of $31.9 million last year. Politicians who "just can't say no to ethnic special interests" are "largely" responsible for the expansion of care to undocumented immigrants, Malkin writes. Malkin asks, "[J]ust how much compassion for non-citizens can this country afford?" adding, "[H]ow long will taxpayers tolerate such unfair appropriations of money from law-abiding Americans to law-breaking foreigners?" According to Malkin, "It's time for the feds to step up and pull the plug on interminable health benefits for illegal aliens." Malkin suggests that the State Department seek reimbursement for care from the home countries of the "most expensive, chronically ill" immigrants and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service "get serious about deport[ing]" undocumented immigrants. She concludes, "[W]e Americans should all stop apologizing for wanting to prevent our home from becoming a safe haven for sickly moochers from around the world" (Malkin, Washington Times, 1/2).