President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Attorney General of California Xavier Becerra, is eyeing plans to provide illegal aliens with taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits, according to a report.
Becerra, who will go before a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, has long advocated providing roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens with American healthcare.
A report in Politico reveals that those closest to Becerra say he is potentially interested in pursuing executive policy initiatives as HHS Secretary, if confirmed, that would provide illegal aliens with healthcare.
Politico reports:
But interviews with 15 Becerra friends, colleagues, and allies, as well as health care experts, suggest that health care for undocumented immigrants is an issue close to the heart of the 63-year-old son of a Mexican immigrant mother who, despite a diplomatic demeanor, can be forceful in pushing issues that align with his value system. [Emphasis added]
A POLITICO review of his 24-year House career and four years as California attorney general found that Becerra has repeatedly advocated for undocumented immigrants to have more access to health care and other government benefits, whether through Medicaid or Obamacare. [Emphasis added]
“He’s one of those individuals that had exceedingly deep convictions about the need to cover the undocumented individuals in all of our communities,” said former Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), who worked with Becerra during the Obamacare debate. In the case of the health care bill, Gonzalez said, “It did not make any sense not to, as long as they went ahead and paid for the coverage.” [Emphasis added]
In the Obama years, for example, Becerra was one of the chief elected House Democrats pushing the administration to open Obamacare healthcare exchanges to illegal aliens. As California Attorney General, Becerra has watched as the state opened healthcare benefits to illegal aliens.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is reportedly lobbying lawmakers to oppose Becerra’s nomination, citing his support for healthcare for illegal aliens.
Should Becerra become HHS Secretary, he could let illegal aliens onto Obamacare exchanges while pressuring states to pursue similar policies like those in California. Likewise, Becerra could open Obamacare exchanges to particular subgroups of illegal aliens, like those enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
In 2019, taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens became a lightning rod issue after Biden and the majority of his Democrat colleagues running for president said they supported the initiative.
Later, Biden underscored his support, telling the media that he wants to allow illegal aliens to “buy into the system,” even as at least 30 million Americans are uninsured today. Of those 30 million uninsured Americans, more than 7-in-10 have said they do not have healthcare because they cannot afford it.
As Breitbart News has reported, forcing taxpayers to provide healthcare to all illegal aliens would cost citizens anywhere between $23 billion to $66 billion every single year — potentially up to $660 billion bill for taxpayers every decade.
The cost would be only the first issue facing taxpayers. Medical experts have admitted that providing healthcare to illegal aliens would ensure a never-ending flood of illegal aliens arriving at the southern border with “serious health problems” which local hospitals would have to cover the cost for.
Already, taxpayers are forced to subsidize about $18.5 billion of yearly medical costs for illegal aliens living in the U.S., according to estimates by Chris Conover, formerly of the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke University.
When U.S. voters were polled by CNN on the issue in July 2019, nearly 6-in-10 said they were opposed to such a policy, including 63 percent of swing voters and 61 percent of self-described “moderates.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.