Free health care for illegal aliens

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed state health care coverage for all Californians. "Californians," under Schwarzenegger's definition, does not mean legal residents of the state of California. It means free health care for anyone who decides to sneak across the border.

Fortunately, the Republican legislative minority is united against this dumb idea, and probably has enough Constitutional power to stop it:

"California is not responsible for paying for the medical care of the undocumented -- people who are here illegally, period," said Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks (Sacramento County). "We are not the health maintenance organization for Mexico."

Schwarzenegger has not yet revealed details of his health care initiative, and there is no indication whether he will propose spending tax money to extend care to undocumented immigrants.

But the governor said Sunday on a national TV news program that his goal was to extend coverage to all 6.7 million Californians who are without health insurance -- a figure that includes an estimated 1.6 million undocumented immigrants, according to figures from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger would not comment Wednesday directly on the warnings from GOP lawmakers. But Kim Belshé, the governor's secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that debate over health care reform needs to include undocumented immigrants.

Because, you know, we're just not attracting enough illegal aliens with free schools, free emergency services, and automatic citizenship for their babies.