Ezra Klein /WaPo supports universal healthcare for illegal aliens, thinks INS still exists

Ezra Klein - newest intern/blogger at the Washington Post - offers "A Bit More on Immigration and Health Reform" (link) in which he supports giving universal healthcare to illegal aliens:

If you're an unskilled or semi-skilled native worker, the situation you should really fear is one in which employers need to provide health care for you but not the undocumented immigrants competing for the same job. That's a world in which the cost of your labor is far higher than the cost of an undocumented immigrant's labor. It makes you economically inefficient. It makes you less likely to get hired.

This absurd talking point is similar to the immigration wage floor talking point. The policy Klein is promoting would provide yet another incentive for people to come here illegally. Those new illegal aliens (the correct, legal term) would swamp the system and eventually - after a great deal of trouble - show just how faulty's Ezra Klein's policy is.

The better solution is to provide only emergency services to illegal aliens, provide whatever health benefits in whatever plan only to citizens and perhaps legal immigrants, and at the same time simply enforce our laws to encourage current illegal aliens to return home over time. That is the only sensible solution if you want UHC. Anything other than that will completely fail sooner or later.

Note also this:

There are lots of reasons it's a bad idea for an employer to hire illegal workers (INS raids, say).

Bolding added, because the INS no longer exists. In fact, it hasn't existed for six years. Anyone who follows this issue would refer to "ICE raids". And, anyone who'd make that sort of mistake has no real clue about this issue, but that's something I've known about Ezra Klein for a while.

Tue, 05/19/2009 - 11:27 · · Importance: 4