Federal healthcare programs should cover the children of illegal immigrants, a group of House Democrats says.

Democrats are asking the Obama administration to make healthcare available to children who are able to stay in the U.S. under the deferred-action immigration policy that President Obama announced earlier this year.

The policy -- similar to the DREAM Act -- allows many children of illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation, as long as they meet certain criteria.

A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Barbara Lee (P-CA), is now pressing the Obama administration to open federal healthcare programs to children who receive deferred action under Obama's plan.

The administration has said DREAMers are not eligible for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program or the federal subsides provided under Obama's signature healthcare law.

The lawmakers said the administration squandered an opportunity to give DREAMers access to the same healthcare options as American citizens.

"We believe this rule-making process offered an opportunity for the Department to enable these young people -- Americans in every respect except on paper -- to access the same range of healthcare options as the citizens they hope to one day become," they wrote in a letter to Obama...

Obama's healthcare law creates new state-based insurance exchanges where people who don't get coverage through an employer can shop for a private insurance plan, usually with a subsidy from the federal government. No undocumented immigrants, including DREAMers, can receive insurance subsidies.

Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is now treated differently from other avenues for deferred action, the lawmakers said...

Lee's office is circulating a "dear colleague" request asking her fellow lawmakers to sign on to the letter to Obama. So far, signatures include Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Lucille Roybal-Allard (P-CA), Donna Christensen (P-AVI) and Jan Schakowsky (P-IL).

READ FULL SOURCE ARTICLE: 12/03/2012

Editor's Note: Tax dollars to non-citizens...when does it ever stop with the Progressive redistribution of wealth? It was bad enough that they continually steal property (earnings) from the producers to give to the non-producers (takers) who are citizens, now were expanding the redistribution of wealth (taxpayer dollars) to non-citizens...