The push to lift a five-year waiting period on when legal immigrant children can apply to health care programs is having trouble clearing committee.
Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, opted to delay a vote on her SB44 before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday, when member Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay, was absent for the decision.
Robles and Jones are the only two Democrats on the six-member panel.
During the hearing, SB44 faced opposition from representatives of conservative groups, such as the Eagle Forum and Sutherland Institute.
Robles' bill would allow about 800 legal immigrant children who are eligible to apply for Medicaid or Utah's Children Health Insurance Program, which offer insurance to low-income populations. SB44 would cost the state about $468,600, and for every dollar Utah puts in, the federal government matches with $4. About 28 states offer CHIP and Medicaid to legal immigrant children.
"This is not an immigration issue, it's a health care issue -- these immigrant families are playing by the rules," Robles said, adding that removing the five-year wait period would give children timely medical care and give them a better chance at leading productive lives. Preventative care could also help reduce costs of expensive emergency-room care, she said.
But providing health care to immigrants isn't the taxpayer's responsibility, said Ron Mortensen, a local grass-roots activist.
"Now some will say that I am being harsh and mean spirited," Mortensen said, "but I would argue that it is not playing by the rules when you ask the American taxpayer to pay for benefits that you agreed that you would not ask for when you applied to come to the United States."
Before ending the hearing, Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, commended the physicians who testified for wanting to extend care, but said the five-year waiting period for legal immigrant children "is a reasonable expectation."
The committee is to vote on SB44 at its next meeting, at 8 a.m. Thursday.
