Why Amnesty is Worse With Obamacare

It’s rumored that President Obama will follow up his health care success with a push for immigration reform. It’s a bad idea–-not least because of the negative impact the latter will have on the former.

My latest column for The Week argues that the Administration will only exacerbate the problems in Obamacare if it makes immigration reform--specifically amnesty--its next cause:

As is, the foreign-born will absorb a disproportionate share of the subsidies extended by the newly-enacted health plan. If we proceed with an immigration reform that legalizes the 10-12 million illegal workers currently in the country, the number of recipients of health-care subsidies will soar, adding hugely to health reform’s future costs. Subsidies will be concentrated among the poorest – and immigrants are 50 percent more likely to be poor than natives.

Donald Rumsfeld used to joke: “If you don’t know how to solve a problem, make it bigger.” This is what the U.S. has been doing with its poverty problem since 1970, and it has not proved to be very good advice.

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