Amazing! Brown Blinks at Alien Health Care Costs

In a departure from his well-documented illegal immigration advocacy, California Governor Jerry Brown expressed concerns about what SB 4’s final cost might be. SB 4 proposes to make illegal immigrants eligible for Medi-Cal and to apply for a federal waiver which would allow them to purchase unsubsidized health care on the state exchange.

SB 4: “Health Care for All” (except citizens).

But, the program’s cost and the funding sources are vague – the same roadblock that forced Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) to withdraw his similar bill last year. Lara projects SB 4 will cost between $400 and $800 million, numbers he may have pulled out of thin air since the difference between the high and low estimates is 100 percent. Naturally, Lara will give the press the most conservative total.

Long-time critics of California’s illegal immigration scene know that alien rewards always end up being given to more people than anticipated and costing more than expected. The most recent example is illegal immigrants’ driver’s licenses. In January 2015 when the state first issued licenses, the Department of Motor Vehicles predicted 1.4 million aliens would eventually be licensed. But lo and behold, only three months into the process, 500,000 licenses have been granted, a sure sign that California is home to many more aliens than the state acknowledges.

Brown, who normally is pre-sold on expanding benefits to California’s illegal immigrants, isn’t buying – at least yet – Lara’s understated estimates. Dodging a specific question about SB 4, Brown said “…when you price them out [bills under discussion that haven’t reached his desk], they exceed the available money.” In other words, taxpayers can expect to foot the bill. Watch Brown hedge his bets here.

SB 4 is the latest chapter from illegal immigrants’ ongoing “nothing-is-ever-enough” drama in which there’s no compunction about draining taxpayers dry.