President Obama clearly indicated in his speech yesterday that Illegal Immigrants will not benefit from the proposed overall of the US health care system. About 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants are currently in the US. Over 50% of these persons have no access to health care. The cost for treating these persons amount to approximately $4.9B annually, according to local, state and federal reports.

The issue at hand is that even though Illegal Immigrants are not supposed to get health care, they often do. The President has not outlined what persons would be required to present at a clinic or hospital. It seems quite clear to me that the Social Insurance Number (SIN) should be presented at each visit. If this is not enforced then immigrants will be allowed to access the health care system.

There are a lot of details that need to be outlined by the President if he is to get support for this bill. Over the next few weeks we will see if more detail is provided. One thing is sure, he will face mounting pressures from the lobbyists, who are supported by HMO's and large pharmaceutical companies......