Biden says U.S. has ‘obligation’ to give health care to everyone including ILLEGAL immigrants
The vice president spoke about health care on a trip to California
He said anyone who needs care ‘regardless of whether they are documented’ should get it
He called for more clinics around the country
He called to ‘tone down the rhetoric’ and without mentioning President Trump’s name said he was trying to create ‘fear and concern’
Biden has called for allowing any American to buy into a public option for Medicare, while some rivals have called for making Medicare available for all
Vice President Joe Biden said at a California campaign event that the nation has an obligation to provide health care for people, including those who came into the country illegally.
Biden made the statement on a West Coast swing Wednesday.
‘I think that anyone who is in a situation where they’re in need of healthcare, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for,” Biden said in Los Angeles, where he held a major fundraiser.
He didn’t specify what type of care he had in mind, or whether it would be the same care provided to citizens and legal immigrants. “That’s why I think we need more clinics around the country,’ Biden said.
Obamacare, the national health law that Biden famously called a ‘big f***** deal’ when it passed while he was in office, does not allow people who came here illegally to buy health plans under the federal exchange.
The issue became a flashpoint in 2014 when the Obama administration elected not to extend coverage to ‘Dreamers’ or others protected from deportation. Emergency Medicaid programs do subsidize hospitals who are obligated to provide emergency and maternity care, regardless of status.
Biden’s comment got publicized by a GOP research director and picked up by the conservative Daily Wire. The former vice president, who has called for allowing any American to buy into a public option for Medicare, also called for people to ‘tone down the rhetoric’ on immigration.
‘This idea that undocumented – and by the way a significant portion of undocumented folks in our country are there because they’ve overstayed their visas. It’s not people breaking down gates coming across the border,’ Biden said.
‘The biggest thing we’ve got to do on this is just tone down the rhetoric. We know why it’s happening. It’s to create fear and concern. Why is your job in tough shape? Because of that, then he described in very graphic unflattering terms, that other, the immigrant. This is ridiculous,’ he said.
President Trump blasted illegal immigration at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida Thursday, defending his use of the term invasion and alluding to the time he singled out Mexican ‘rapists’ during his campaign launch.
“How do you stop these people?” the president asked rhetorically. A member of the crowd yelled out ‘Shoot them!’ prompting Trump to joke: ‘That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.’
