Obama Criticized by Guitierrez and Rights Advocates on Healthcare

Peter Wallsten writes in the LA Times:

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), an early Obama ally, said Tuesday that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were reevaluating their support for the healthcare overhaul.

[Joe] Wilson’s outburst, Gutierrez said, was “said in a mean, ugly way. And what the president did was create an even meaner, uglier public policy to accompany it.”

Congress is working on plans to give low- and moderate-income people subsidies to buy health insurance in an effort to reduce the number of uninsured in the country.

None of the measures would allow undocumented immigrants to receive subsidies.

Obama’s proposal, circulated in an e-mail to reporters, would go further, barring undocumented immigrants from an insurance marketplace designed to make it easier for consumers to find coverage.

As they can today, undocumented immigrants still could buy insurance in the private market. But the White House e-mail noted that if the Democratic legislation passed, private insurers could be expected to sell more insurance through the so-called exchange and less coverage outside of it, leaving the private market to shrink over time. Click here for the full story.

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