Title: Health insurance for undocumented immigrants? It's only fair to all of us | TheHill
Headings: Health insurance for undocumented immigrants? It's only fair to all of us
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Health insurance for undocumented immigrants? It's only fair to all of us

Content: If they were citizens, they would be able to purchase an individual or family insurance plan on one of the health-care exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And if they could not afford to pay for a full-priced plan, they would receive a tax subsidy to offset a portion of their premium. Unfortunately, undocumented immigrants are excluded from any participation in the mechanisms of the Affordable Care Act. However, they will receive care at a hospital emergency room when necessary. Hospital emergency rooms must examine all patients who present for care and cannot discharge them until they are “stabilized” regardless of their ability to pay. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act ( EMTALA) was passed more than thirty years ago to prevent some hospitals from closing their doors entirely to the uninsured and diverting them to competitor hospitals. Moreover, it reflects an intuition that we don’t want people to die in the streets. Hospital emergency rooms must take them in and can’t discharge until the danger of dying in the street is no longer imminent. So, we have a policy that requires some services to be provided to patients who are prohibited from paying their fair share for those services through the usual mechanism of paying an insurance premium. Conversely, undocumented immigrants pay into government safety-net systems that they cannot access.