Universal Healthcare and Access for Undocumented Immigrants

Nothing can rouse fury in even the most apathetic voter or stir the vitriol of American political discourse like the healthcare debate. From the run-up to the 2008 Presidential Election—when then-Senator Barack Obama made the creation of a revamped healthcare system the crux of his platform—through the present, the President’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) has been under siege. Obstreperous members of Congress on both sides of the debate levied traditional lines of criticism, concerning themselves with the law’s perceived socialist leaning or the associated financial burden.2 Still other critics believe the healthcare plan will grant undocumented immigrants unmerited access to the benefits of a public healthcare system. Collectively, the narrative surrounding the healthcare debate has been so overly contentious and hostile as to obviate any remaining comity within the political discourse surrounding the problem. 3 But, behind all this white noise and livid rhetoric there still remains the central issue: without an adequate proposal that addresses the undocumented immigrant ‘problem,’ President Obama’s healthcare plan is incomplete