Court: State may be able to kick many immigrants off subsidized health insurance
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that the state constitution does not automatically give legal aliens the right to state-subsidized health insurance.
Immigrants had originally been covered by Commonwealth Care, but the state moved to strike them from coverage to save money. The state's highest court said that while the state constitution protects people against discrimination based on "national origin," it does not necessarily protect "aliens" against discrimination. The court drew the distinction between the two:
[A]n individual may cease to be an alien as a result of naturalization while retaining his or her national origin. Conversely, an American citizen, who may have national origins both in the United States and elsewhere, may lose his or her citizenship while retaining those national origins.
Still, the court, in a narrow 4-3 decision, held that a lower court would have to pay particular attention to claims by immigrant groups that removing eligibility for many immigrants might be discriminatory:
Aliens, standing by definition outside the body politic and yet subject to its laws, are a prototypical example of the "discrete and insular" minority. In light of their particularly vulnerable status, it thus remains necessary to exercise heightened vigilance to ensure that the full panoply of constitutional protections are afforded to the Commonwealth’s resident aliens.
The current state law, which set up a "bridge" program to help some of the immigrants kicked off Commonwealth Care, is based on a federal law the determines which immigrants are eligible for federal programs, including certain foreigners who served in the US military, Cubans and Haitians.
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Comments
Um, er, I'm an illegal immigrant
Boy, it's a shame that they're kicking people off Commonwealth Care. I think I just lost my ability to speak English. Que? No mas insurance?
So...
I think you'll still have to pay the tax penalty for not having insurance, regardless of why you don't have it.
Isn't the penalty less than insurance costs anyway? Why not just pay it? If you're actually invincible as you claim to be, it isn't like you're risking having a $50,000 hospital bill for getting in an accident or something. So just pay the penalty.
No, I have the insurance
But the Year of Being Ripped Off is coming to a close. Thank Christ.
Globe's take on this decision seems to be the opposite of yours
The Globe story says:
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