By Stephen Macaulay
Here in southeastern Michigan the political advertising is relentless on the local broadcast stations. The Trump and Harris campaigns or their affiliated PACs are undoubtedly causing station managers to dance a jig of delight, given that they’ve become fairly dependent upon ad revenue from local law firms that promote their winning ways on a regular basis and so the slamming of candidates is something of a windfall.
The Harris commercials are consistent in a message of all of the people she’s “taken on” in her career, from greedy landlords to the drug companies. (It is somewhat surprising how many people have claimed they were instrumental to the $35 monthly insulin program: first Biden, now Harris, and even Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running for the Senate.)
The Trump-related ads are not about any accomplishments that the ex-president made.
They are generally focused on what a deplorable person Kamala Harris is — although they wouldn’t use that adjective even though they describe her as one.
Some of the ads have bizarre camera angles, images that appear to have been cut from a Super 8 film, and tinting as though this is something out of Blumhouse Productions.
One ad that is in heavy rotation is somewhat simpler: a nurse explaining how because of Harris’ failure at the border and the consequent overwhelming number of illegal immigrants, those illegals are not only filling up the hospital where she works, thereby preventing her patients from getting the care they need, but the patients, who are undoubtedly law-abiding Republicans, have to pay the medical bills run up by the illegals.
As someone who (a) pays taxes and (b) pays medical insurance premiums that seem to do nothing but rise, I certainly find that concerning.
So I wondered.
And found this from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which does research into things like public health policy:
“Lawfully present immigrants may qualify for Medicaid and CHIP but are subject to eligibility restrictions that result in some, particularly recent immigrants, being ineligible to enroll even if they meet other eligibility criteria. For example, many must meet a five-year waiting period before qualifying for Medicaid or CHIP. Lawfully present immigrants can purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces and may receive tax credits for this coverage without a waiting period.”
That certainly doesn’t sound like they’re filling the appointments at the local urgent care.
Then KFF points out:
“Undocumented immigrants are ineligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.”
In other words, they can’t, though the implication is otherwise, get federal insurance.
KFF continues:
“Medicaid payments for emergency services may be made on behalf of individuals who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid but for their immigration status. These payments may help cover the costs for emergency care provided to immigrants who remain ineligible for Medicaid but are not coverage for individuals.”
If someone is an undocumented immigrant and gets hit by a bus, one imagines that the Hippocratic Oath kicks in and that person gets medical care.
And that medical facility, subsequently, gets some reimbursement from the federal government for providing that care.
The alternative to that care would be, what?
Remember when Obamacare was being debated and there were Republicans, against it, talked about “Death Panels”?
Is the suggestion now that those who get hit by buses simply have to deal with it?
Wouldn’t that be more inhumane than a fictitious panel?
Doesn’t a Judeo-Christian nation in the 21st century, the most powerful country in the world, have a responsibility for providing some level of care even for those who are here illegally?
I am not promoting illegal immigration. But I do believe that there is a certain level of “human-ness” that necessitates dealing with those who are in need of medical attention.
What seems to be getting zero attention from Trump or Harris is that the flat-out criminals aside, many of the people who enter the country illegally do so because they know there is a good likelihood that they can get a job from employers that are not in the least bit interested in their documents, but only in their ability and willingness to work for a low wage, probably off the books. So why not have the Department of Labor focus on making sure that employers have the correct paperwork for each of their employees and if they don’t have the documents, then they pay non-trivial fines and face other penalties. You can bet that when the demand for illegal workers dries up the number of people crossing the border illegally will dry up, as well. Addressing the demand is far more effective than building a wall to minimize the supply, because without the demand, there is no need for the supply. Don’t people read Adam Smith anymore?
But that nurse in the Trump ad certainly doesn’t want to get into the weeds of what the actual state of health care among illegal immigrants is. She just wants us all to know that when you have a tough time getting an appointment with your physician it is probably because of an illegal alien — and that person got the appointment that you want because of Harris.
The ad, as well as others in the anti-Harris playlist, says two things about Harris that seem to cancel one another out, or at least minimize the scariness of the candidate.
She is “dangerous.” But she is also “weak.”
In other words, she is the opposite of Voldemort.
In his August 8 press conference Trump said, “We have commercials that are at a level I don't think that anybody's ever done before.”
When you call your opponent “weak” and “dangerous” that is a level I don’t think that anybody’s ever done before -- and not in a good way.
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