CHICAGO — Pushing around a cart filled with steamed corn, sliced cucumbers and other street food, Omar Castillo is the embodiment of what has become a third rail in the healthcare debate.
The 19-year-old, who received a kidney transplant last year, is in the U.S. illegally and has no ready access to long-term medical care. So peddling snacks is how he pays for the expensive drugs he needs to stay healthy.
To cover the needs of an estimated 6.8 million uninsured illegal immigrants, some advocates have proposed broadening the healthcare overhaul legislation now before Congress.
But fierce opposition has kept the idea off the table.
Castillo received his transplant and a year of free medicine as part of a hospital study at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago after lobbying by Latino activists and a call from the governor's office. With the study over, his last free prescription is running out.
"We don't know what we'll do when the medicine is gone," said Castillo, holding two nearly empty bottles of the immunosuppressants he takes to ward off an organ rejection.
It is immoral, immigration activists say, for hospitals and doctors -- as well as a nation -- to deny healthcare to the seriously ill, no matter their legal status. But proponents of tougher immigration enforcement and others fighting to contain runaway costs fear that providing such services would encourage more illegal border crossings.
Given spotty healthcare in countries such as China and Mexico, "health insurance alone might be worth people coming here . . . especially if you've got a family that's got a lot of illness in it," said Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, which has pushed for tighter restrictions on medical aid to illegal immigrants.
The issue is so sensitive that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has made a point of emphasizing that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the current healthcare proposals. And the Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a statement backing coverage only for "legal, law abiding" immigrants who pay their "fair share" for healthcare.
Under federal law, illegal immigrants are entitled to receive emergency healthcare, although some states offer assistance to cover uninsured children.
For some, a struggle
Some illegal immigrants have used stolen Social Security numbers to qualify for health programs -- a form of medical identity theft increasingly on hospital radars. Many more scramble to pay for their medicine and doctors visits in cash, a challenge in an economy where day-laborer work has dried up.
