Health coverage for the illegal will be a tough sell
Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a bigger problem than Republican legislative resistance in trying to sell a core element of his healthcare overhaul. That problem is the public.
The governor wants to require everybody in California to carry health insurance. That means illegal immigrants too. People who can't afford coverage would get state subsidies.
"If you can't afford it, the state will help you buy it, but you must be insured," Schwarzenegger declared Monday in announcing his plan.
No way, say most Californians. Not for people who sneaked into the state illegally.
A new poll being released today by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University shows that when Republican legislative leaders flat-out call the concept of insuring illegal immigrants "a nonstarter," they're reflecting the California mainstream.
Conservatives are in the center on this one. Schwarzenegger is over on the left.
The statewide poll of 985 Californians was conducted just before Schwarzenegger unveiled his plan, and the questions are generic. When interviewers didn't mention illegal immigrants, a majority (52%) of those surveyed thought the state should "guarantee" health insurance for everyone. Even more people (59%) felt all children should be insured.
But the replies to another question showed that the governor has a lot of convincing to do before the public accepts all of his ambitious "reform."
Asked whether the state should guarantee health insurance for illegal immigrants, 37% answered yes, 52% no. The negative reaction was even stronger among registered voters: 32% yes, 58% no.
Democrats are about evenly split on the question. But nearly three-fourths of Republicans and independents oppose guaranteeing health insurance for illegal immigrants.
Two-thirds of Latino voters favor it. But only roughly a quarter of white voters do.
There's an intriguing L.A. finding. Attitudes in Los Angeles County differ sharply from all other major regions of the state. In L.A., 52% of voters favor insuring illegal immigrants and only 42% oppose it. And that's not just because there are a lot of Latino immigrants in L.A. County.
L.A. Latinos do overwhelmingly favor the notion -- even more so than Latinos statewide -- but a small plurality of whites also support it.
By contrast, 56% of voters in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area oppose insuring illegal immigrants; only 32% favor it.
