Dan Walters' Capitol Q&A

Question: In reading some of the proposals for health care reform here in California, the question that comes to mind is, out of the 6.7 million uninsured people in California, how many are illegal? And do they take into account that, by my estimate, the majority of unisured people are illegal and would be covered under these proposals? Is there a way that we could separate those that are illegal and those that aren't and just cover the illegals with the bare minimum?
-- Jason, Sacramento

Answer: The Census Bureau and other research authorities have determined that about 6.7 million of California's 37 million residents were without health insurance sometime in the last year, with about 5 million of those considered to be the hard-core uninsured. It's also believed that of California's 37 million residents, about 3 million are illegal immigrants, or fewer than 10 percent. But illegal immigrants also comprise more than 10 percent of the state's employed workers.

UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research says that based on surveys conducted in 2005, 63 percent of the medically uninsured were citizens, another 15 percent were noncitizens but legal residents with green cards and 22 percent (about 1.4 million) were illegal immigrants. That implies that roughly half of the state's illegal immigrants lack health insurance, more than twice the rate of the population as a whole.

Could they be separated in any health care scheme? Politically, that's probably not possible, because Democratic legislators would balk. Advocates of including illegal immigrants in comprehensive health care, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, contend that it's more cost-effective to cover them up-front rather than have them seek medical care through hospital emergency rooms.
--Dan Walters