During President Obama's Wednesday-night speech on health care reform, the voice of South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson echoed across the chamber."You lie!"
Obama had just insisted that his proposals wouldn't provide government-funded health insurance to illegal aliens. Wilson's outburst received a chorus of boos from both sides of the house, but the question remained:
Was Obama lying?
No.
Obama's highly-touted Affordable Health Choices Act 2009 doesn't include any measure to provide illegal aliens with government-subsidized health insurance - but that doesn't mean illegal aliens won't continue to get free health care as a result of it.
In fact, illegal aliens have been receiving free medical treatment for decades now - and characters like Joe Wilson are complicit in it.
Contrary to popular belief, America actually has a form of universal health care - the elephant in the living room nobody talks about in the health care debate.
The law makes it mandatory for most hospitals to offer emergency treatment to those without medical insurance, or legal residency. As a result, whether it's being patched up for a broken arm, or giving birth to a new baby, illegal immigrants run up a daily hospital tab in the millions of dollars.
Thanks to these laws, everybody in America has at least some access to treatment when they need it - even if they never pay for it. But who does?
Mostly, it's the 80 million Americans who purchase health insurance, privately or through their employer. Hospitals mitigate their costs by increasing the price insured patients pay. When we go in for an MRI, our bill reflects not just the cost of treating us, but also the people who didn't pay.
More than the costs of malpractice insurance, or pharmaceutical price-fixing, it's this 'free' medical care that has caused the price of regular medical insurance to shoot up. Premiums have doubled in the past decade - and are forecast to do the same again by 2020.
When Congressman Joe Wilson gets his knickers in a twist about illegal immigrants receiving free medical care on his dime, he's presumably unaware they already are.
In fact, Obama's Affordable Health Choices Act 2009 will actually reduce the number of illegal immigrants receiving free care.
One of the measures Obama proposes is mandatory purchase of insurance - fining people who don't buy coverage. These fines will be issued via a resident's Tax I.D. number - which isn't linked to their immigration status.
Thousands of illegal immigrants may now find themselves forced to buy health insurance just like the rest of us. A negligible number - but still a number.Which means, in the great scheme of things, that Congressman Joe Wilson advocates a system that institutionalizes free health care for illegal immigrants, whereas President Obama proposes a system which addresses that issue.
And in yelling out 'you lie' across the chamber, Wilson didn't just prove that he was classless and boorish - he also confirmed that he was ignorant, as well.
