Undocumented Aliens Will Get Preventive Care, Shalala Says

On the same day that President Clinton announced a new crackdown on illegal immigration, a senior Administration official said here Tuesday that the President’s health care plan will provide preventive as well as emergency room services for undocumented aliens.

“We have got to provide prevention for everybody that’s here,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala told reporters after a speech to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “One person getting a disease who is an undocumented alien risks all of our health.”

Shalala stressed that illegal aliens would not be eligible for the full package of benefits that the new health care plan is expected to provide all American citizens and legal residents. But her remarks still appeared to move beyond earlier statements by Administration officials, who had not previously indicated that undocumented aliens would be eligible for preventive health services.

Told of Shalala’s comments, a White House official insisted the final health care plan will not expand services for illegal aliens in any respect.

“We’re not going to provide any additional health services to undocumented aliens,” said Bob Boorstin, the spokesman for the Administration’s recently disbanded health care task force.

Under current law, states with large undocumented alien populations receive federal grants to provide them with some limited preventive services.

Shalala’s remarks left unclear the extent to which the Administration health care plan might expand such services, but her general tone suggested that the initiative would seek to make preventive care more broadly available for undocumented aliens.

Shalala told reporters: “What the President has talked about is American citizens getting health care cards. But we have indicated that we will continue to have a public health system and no one will be turned away for health care. So there will be a system in place that covers everyone that is in the United States . . . . “