In 2006, Mitt Romney was the Governor of Massachusetts. He signed a law that was called the Health Safety Net. It allowed people who lacked health insurance to get the health care they need. It also allows undocumented immigrants to do the same. This is a controversial issue.
Mitt Romney is one of the people who is currently running for President of the United States of America. He is a Republican, and has been involved in the recent debates, arguing with other Republican politicians who also hope to be selected as the Republican party candidate in the upcoming Presidential election.
The Health Safety Net, which he signed when he was governor of Massachusetts in 2006, might not have brought much controversy when it was first signed. However, now that Romney is running for President, that law is something that has been brought to people’s attention.
That particular Massachusetts health program cost more than $400 million in the past year. It paid for over a million hospital and clinic visits for people who did not have health insurance. The Health Safety Net was not designed to allow people who were in the country illegally to benefit from receiving free health care. However, it seems that there isn’t anything in this law to prevent that from occurring.
The wording in the Health Safety Net states that it is not allowed to be used by people who “moved into the common wealth for the sole purpose of securing health insurance”. It also is not to be used by people who are eligible for other health insurance plans.
Nothing in that law specifically prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving help through the Health Safety Net. The program can be used by anyone, citizen or not, to get publicly subsidized health care for free.
Hospitals are prohibited from turning away people who are in need of care. The immigration status of the patient is not considered. People who need help, and who go to a hospital emergency room, are going to be treated. Clinics don’t usually check to see if a patient is in the country illegally before providing health care.
Rick Perry is the governor of Texas, and another Republican who hopes to become President of the United States. Romney has said negative things about Perry’s support of educational aid for kids of undocumented immigrants in Texas.
Romney has stated that we need to “turn off the magnet of extraordinary government benefits” to people who are here illegally. It could be those kinds of statements that have brought Romney’s Health Safety Net into focus.
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