Virginia Democrats are pushing legislation extending “state-funded comprehensive health care coverage” to illegal aliens under 19 years of age who are not already covered by a health plan or insurance.
The so-called ‘Cover All Kids’ bill, complains Republican State Senator Glen Sturtevant, will “undermine legal immigration and incentivize illegal immigration,” coming alongside similar proposals to “grant illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.” He estimated the cost to Virginia taxpayers from the healthcare bill at over $100 million.
“These bad policies jeopardize not just Virginia’s healthcare system but create perverse incentives that illegal immigrants will see as a green light to travel to Virginia for free schooling, driver’s licenses, and now, free healthcare,” Sturtevant warned, comparing the Democrat agenda to the “sanctuary” policies which have seen cities like New York and Chicago become magnets for illegal aliens, incurring huge costs.
Similar “perverse incentives” have been seen in Massachusetts, where state ‘right to shelter’ laws have seen migrants crowd into hotels across the country at taxpayers’ expense. Whistleblowers say the scheme is running up enormous costs, with the migrants given “free diapers, wipes, toiletries, free tablets and phones, free English lessons, state caseworkers making sure all entitlements are taken, free Uber and Lyft rides, [and] free bus passes,” among a host of other benefits.
They are also said to be eating up first responder resources, with police and firefighters attending migrant hotels to deal with “fights, guns, drugs, [and] overdoses” on a daily basis.
