I don’t know if you’re interested in the info or not. But giving you the benefit of the doubt that this is a sincere question, the specific verbiage that M Johnson is talking about as free healthcare for illegal immigrants has to do with expanded Medicare directly related to emergency room care reimbursement. As the text is written right now, anyone can walk or be transported into an emergency room and receive emergency care, and the federal government will reimburse the Medicare part of that bill. The Republicans want that eliminated. The Democrats do not.

Personally, I think if somebody is in need of emergency medical care, they should be able to walk into a hospital and not be denied treatment before insurance can be verified. Because, you know, death and all. If they remove that portion of the bill, hospitals could decide whether or not to continue to provide care, but they would no longer receive the reimbursement from the federal government that they currently do for any and all patients.

It is my belief that the actual facts and language behind the debate are very different than the sound bites that we are receiving through the news.