I really don't care about Delaware Republican Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell's views on masturbation, though I find it mildly amusing that she lied on her resume but claims she wouldn't lie to the Nazis to protect Anne Frank. During yesterday's debate, though, she said something that is both outrageous and relevant to the job she's running for. In the context of answering a question about the insurance mandate and the Affordable Care Act, with the moderators pointing out that taxpayers ultimately do foot the bill for other people's health care when they just show up at the emergency room, O'Donnell appeared to lament that fact that illegal immigrants get emergency care if they show up at the ER, complaining that hospitals are being "forced" to "give care to illegal aliens."
Immigrants, legal or otherwise, generally underconsume health care. But in 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act as part of COBRA, which mandates that hospitals give emergency care to individuals regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay. It's a question of basic decency -- if someone shows up with a serious or life-threatening condition, that person shouldn't be turned out into the street.
The idea that hospitals shouldn't be required to give care to illegal immigrants is unbelievably callous -- what you're basically saying is that, for someone unfortunate enough to be dealing with a life-threatening health-related emergency, illegal immigration is a capital crime that should be punishable by death. That's absurd, especially from a candidate claiming to be "pro-life." If you've merely overstayed your visa as opposed to entered the country illegally, you haven't even committed a crime, just a civil violation.
The exchange was somewhat convoluted, so I suppose it's possible she was just talking about the Affordable Care Act, in which case she would merely be wrong and not spectacularly indifferent to human suffering.
