Opinion content—editorials, columns and guest commentaries—is created independent of news reporting and is exclusive to subscribers.Venezuelan migrants leave Daley College and walk along 76th Street to another location in hopes of getting identification cards on June 13, 2023, in Chicago.
But U.S. health care mostly relies on a system of private insurance, something that immigrants lacking permanent legal status typically do not have. And health care in this nation is wildly expensive. That explains why Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday some limitations on what had been closer to a carte blanche for migrants’ health care needs.
But in the Springfield budget deal announced last month, state health care spending on immigrants lacking permanent legal status was reduced to $550 million, not the potential $1.1 billion that had been discussed. Both figures represent a huge amount of taxpayers’ money; the majority of that saved $550 million was earmarked for spending on education.
Additionally, there now will be reimbursement limits and new copays for emergency room visits and inpatient services for those immigrants lacking permanent legal status for whom the federal government is not paying the bills.