For a preview of how a federally-run health care system might deal with uninsured illegal immigrants, watch Massachusetts. In 2006 the state enacted Romneycare, which many consider to be the precursor to Obamacare. A recent report from the Massachusetts Inspector General has found that state agencies have failed to implement controls to prevent ineligible people – including illegal immigrants – from getting free taxpayer-funded health care.
The audit found that the Commonwealth has provided millions of dollars worth of free health services to residents of foreign countries, as well as residents of other states, who should not have qualified in the "free care pool," which is supposed to be only for legal residents of Massachusetts who do not have health insurance.
This fiasco was reported last week by Massachusetts columnist Barbara Anderson, the eminent taxpayer champion and director of the Massachusetts group Citizens for Limited Taxation. Inspector General Greg Sullivan explained to Anderson that the state agency paid all of these ineligible claims because it had no system to screen them out. It was supposed to implement a claims oversight system, but abandoned the project because it was "harder than they thought it would be."
Anderson writes, "There's just a place where bills go to be paid, no questions asked! No proof of residency is required, no Social Security number, no proof that the claimant is actually 'poor.'" Obviously no use of the SAVE program either. Last spring, in the wake of the Auntie Zeituni scandal, a bipartisan group of lawmakers nearly succeeded in passing a bill to mandate use of SAVE by Massachusetts social services agencies, but it was squashed in conference committee, as leadership declared that it wasn't needed.
Does anyone doubt that this is the way illegal aliens' claims for free health services will be handled under Obamacare, despite all the promises to the contrary?