Obamacare navigators seek enrollees at Mexican consulates, regardless of citizenship In an apparent attempt to beef up enrollment numbers,Obamacare navigators are now peddling their overpriced, inadequate health insurance on what is technically foreign soil — in Mexican consulates. Citizenship not required. One activist called the ploy “our responsibility.” “Whether they’re Mexican nationals or whether they’re United States citizens or whether they’re in transition– and if they’re there it is our responsibility within all of America to educate on the Affordable Care Act,” Enroll America field organizer Jose Medrano told Breitbart News on Wednesday. Mexican nationals and U.S. citizens alike were encouraged to sign up for coverage under the Obamacare exchange at a “health fair” hosted by the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville, Texas, last week. “The Mexican Consulate is a very reliable source of information to the Latino community,” Medrano said. “And, therefore, when they host their events, yesterday being the health fair, there are several hundred people that show up.” In an interview earlier this month with the Spanish-speaking radio station, Univision Deportes, President Obama assured Latinos that information gleaned through HealthCare.gov would not be used to deport those living here illegally. “None of the information that is provided in order for you to obtain health insurance is in any way transferred to immigration services,” he said. This isn’t the first time a Mexican Consulate has been used this year to recruit Obamacare enrollees. Similar events took place in Chicago and in Las Vegas, Breitbart reported. “Promoting Obamacare at a Mexican consulate raises three major policy concerns,” Stephen Miller, a spokesman for top immigration hawk, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told Breitbart News. “One, the possibility that illegal immigrants could fraudulently access federal subsidies; two, that such promotions provide a financial inducement to unlawfully enter the U.S. [or overstay a visa] by offering households headed by illegal immigrants federal subsidies through their legal relatives or dependents; and three, that these activities widen an existing flaw in our legal admissions process by continuing to subvert the principle that those seeking to lawfully enter the U.S. should be financially self-sufficient.” Mexican consulates have been used to promote other U.S. government entitlement programs, such as food stamps, Breitbart reported. Although Latinos account for a disproportionately high percentage of the nation’s uninsured, fewer than 20 percent are signing up for Obamacare — not the numbers the administration had hoped for, according to aHeritage Foundation report last week. The report also said Latinos account for about 65 percent of Americans born between 1980 and 2000. The program’s primary target are the young and uninsured, but they’re not buying it, which may account for the administration’s push in Latino communities. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., was clearly out of line when he shouted, “You lie!” after President Obama claimed in a State of the Union address that Obamacare would not be available to non-U.S. nationals. But he also saw the handwriting on the wall.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 06:06:11 +0000
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