Bill Clinton: “Well, as you know, presently, basically undocumented aliens often just become--their health care bills often become the…”

“Well, as you know, presently, basically undocumented aliens often just become--their health care bills often become the burden for the States of the localities. What we propose to do is not to give undocumented aliens health care security cards, because if we did that we would basically be further rewarding people who get around our immigration laws, but to continue to handle them through the public health units that now do it, while providing a direct funding strain for the public health units to deal with the alien health care costs. There will be a big debate in the Congress, and one of the things Senator Moynihan and the others who have jurisdiction over this in the committees will have to hash through is exactly how much money should be in the fund for undocumented aliens to go to public health units in New York, in Florida, in California, New Jersey, the States with big burdens. But under our plan, at least, there is a special fund which recognizes that we are not doing enough to help the States deal with the burden of health care for undocumented aliens.”