Health Plan Likely to Offer Aid for Illegal Immigrants : Reforms: Sources say the Administration’s proposals may include additional funds to help states like California pay the bills.

The Clinton Administration’s health care reform program is likely to include a special pool of funds to help California and other states continue to provide medical care for huge numbers of illegal immigrants, informed sources said Wednesday.

The issue is politically difficult because many Americans, who will be asked to pay higher taxes to provide universal health insurance, may resent extending that new coverage to illegal residents.

Although details of the plan have yet to be worked out, sources said people in this country illegally would not have guaranteed access to the new package of health benefits under universal care. Instead, they would continue to receive treatment at public hospitals and clinics or at emergency rooms of private hospitals that accept indigent patients.

Federal and state governments now help pay those bills, although hospitals claim that the amount of reimbursement is insufficient. Medi-Cal, the joint federal-state program for the poor in California, pays only 61 cents of each dollar spent to care for the indigent, according to hospital estimates.

Under proposals being considered by the Administration’s health care reform officials, a special pool of federal funds would ease the financial burden of providing that care. The amount of additional help has not yet been decided.

States especially eager to tap such a pool include California, Florida, Texas, New York and New Jersey.

“We are going to take care of people, one way or another,” said a California state health official.

A major concern of the Administration’s health care task force is that “there would be a tremendous cost to include the immigrant population (in universal coverage), and that it would not be politically popular to do so,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Bell Gardens). She met recently with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who chairs the health care task force.

Roybal-Allard said she told Hillary Clinton and her advisers that they need to “look at the whole issue from the public health standpoint.”

“The reality is, we can’t afford not to do it, especially with regard to communicable diseases,” she said. “If left untreated, whether or not a person is a citizen, these episodes are going to continue and we are all going to be infected--and end up paying more in the end.”

Carlos Rodriguez of Consumer Union’s western regional office in San Francisco, said it would be “a tremendous mistake” if universal coverage did not include coverage of illegal immigrants.

“There are hundreds of thousands of them in this country, and they have to get attention somehow,” he said. “To be truly universal, you have to include everyone. If you leave out any element, you will program failure into the system, simply because people have to have health care. Without coverage, they will just flood the emergency rooms--as they do now.”

However, several task force members confirmed Wednesday that officials have decided not to include illegal immigrants under any universal coverage plan.

The existing system of providing charity care at hospitals and clinics “will stay in place,” said one task force member.

A related issue that must be settled is a precise definition of legal residency--a classification that ranges from those given political asylum to visiting scholars, sources said.

California officials estimate that Medi-Cal spends $1.5 billion yearly--and the counties another $1 billion--to care for illegal immigrants.

David Langness, vice president for communications at the Hospital Council of Southern California, said the total cost may run as high as $7.5 billion, including the free or reduced-price care provided by private hospitals and doctors.