Gingrich Offers to Fully Repay States on Immigrant Care : Health: Speaker’s plan would bring $400 million a year to California for emergency medical services to those here illegally. Wilson, L.A. County officials praise proposal.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) proposed a multibillion-dollar plan Friday under which the federal government would fully reimburse states for providing emergency medical care to illegal immigrants.

California, which has an estimated half of the nation’s illegal immigrants, could receive more than $400 million a year under the plan outlined by Gingrich at an airport news conference.

The Speaker said the proposal could cost the federal government up to $6 billion nationwide over seven years.

“It is the federal government’s responsibility to stop illegal aliens from coming into this country,” Gingrich said, “and their failure to do so should not impose additional burdens on the states.”

If adopted, Gingrich’s plan would double the reimbursement states currently receive, solving one of the costliest and most controversial problems in dealing with illegal immigration.

Federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency care to all who need it, regardless of immigration status or insurance status. This means that hospitals near the U.S.-Mexico border must provide care--including maternity services--for illegal immigrants and then absorb the unreimbursed portion of the costs elsewhere in their budgets, sometimes by making cuts in services to other patients or adding to the amount charged to those patients.

At present, most illegal immigrants are treated in public hospitals, and most of the costs are paid by state and county governments.

Los Angeles County stands to gain up to $100 million in federal aid for the cost of emergency health care for illegal immigrants under Gingrich’s plan, Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed said Friday night.

“That’s wonderful,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana responded when told about Gingrich’s comments. “It would certainly save our health care system from going to pieces.”

Gov. Pete Wilson estimates that in the fiscal year 1995-96, California will pay $382 million to provide emergency medical services to illegal immigrants, up from $21 million in 1988-89.

Faced with such runaway costs, Wilson has repeatedly petitioned the Clinton Administration to reimburse California and other states for the cost of giving medical care and other services to illegal immigrants.

Not surprisingly, Wilson reacted quickly Friday, praising the plan devised by his fellow Republican.

“Federal failure to secure the border against massive illegal immigration has resulted in terrible unfairness to the states under federal laws which stick state taxpayers for the huge and growing costs” of illegal immigration, the governor said in a prepared statement.

Wilson’s office released figures estimating that 317,000 illegal immigrants will receive publicly financed emergency health care in California in 1995-96, a ninefold increase in seven years. Also, it is estimated that Medi-Cal will pay for 96,000 babies born to illegal immigrants this year.

To drive home the point that money spent on emergency care for illegal immigrants means less to spend on other health programs, Wilson’s staff estimated that by saving $382 million, health facilities in California could provide drug treatment for an additional 25,000 pregnant women, prenatal care to 40,000 women and their babies, and early mental health counseling to 77,000 children.

Gingrich said the money for illegal immigrant health care will come from elsewhere in the federal budget, including savings he anticipates in Medicare overhaul legislation approved Thursday by the House. A bill containing the health care money will be readied for a vote by mid-November, according to aides to the congressmen.

Gingrich said his proposal could amount to more than $6 billion over seven years to reimburse California, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Illinois and other states. The proposal would allow hospitals to bill the federal government directly.

By making the federal government responsible for 100% of the cost of emergency medical care for illegal immigrants, starting in 1996, Gingrich said he hopes to increase the eagerness of Congress to bolster the Border Patrol and endorse laws aimed at getting tough on illegal immigration.

Although the size of the Border Patrol has expanded significantly during the Clinton Administration and illegal immigration has been cut, Gingrich and other Republicans continue to blast Democrats as Johnny-come-latelys in the struggle to deal with the issue.

Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-Escondido) said that when Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) introduced a bill in the early 1980s to add Border Patrol agents, it was blocked by Democrats, who controlled the House for 40 years until the 1994 election.

“Our ability to provide health care to our poor and disabled citizens is being jeopardized by the increasing costs of providing health care [to illegal aliens],” said Rep. Brian Bilbray, an Imperial Beach Republican.

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) crashed the Gingrich news conference to continue the debate over the Gingrich-sponsored Medicare bill, which passed over Democratic opposition. Filner carried a sign which read, “What About Seniors?”

“Where’s Filner?” the Speaker asked. “Outside making a fool out of himself? That’s not a new profession for him.”

Filner said later that while he “appreciates” the idea of reimbursement for illegal immigrants’ emergency medical care, he is concerned where the money will come from. “Probably from seniors and Medicaid,” he said.

As a sign of the continuing passion over the Medicare vote, Filner and Cunningham engaged in a brief confrontation in front of the private air terminal where the news conference was held.

“Filner, you’re not welcome here,” said Cunningham, the former Navy fighter pilot, as he grabbed Filner’s lapel.

“Don’t touch me,” said Filner, a former history professor.

The Gingrich proposal is particularly sweet for Bilbray, a sometimes brash freshman who unseated an incumbent Democrat in 1994 on a platform of backing Proposition 187, which would bar illegal immigrants from receiving most public services. Bilbray also demanded during his campaign that the federal government do a better job of stopping illegal immigration and paying the costs of providing services to those illegal immigrants who successfully breach the border.

As a county supervisor, Bilbray led the move to remove county funding for emergency health care provided to illegal immigrants at the UC San Diego Medical Center, which serves as a county hospital for indigents.

As a result, the medical center this year will be left with a $15-million deficit that it will have to absorb within its budget. In one case, an illegal immigrant who was in a coma after being run over by a Border Patrol truck has required $800,000 in care, a bill the federal government has refused to pay under the doctrine of “sovereign immunity.”

Bilbray has long criticized the federal government as a “deadbeat dad” that sires progeny but then refuses to accept financial responsibility.

“The deadbeat dad is finally ‘fessing up,” said Bilbray, whose subcommittee will help guide the bill.

Times staff writers James Bornemeier in Washington and Richard Simon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

* BUDGET BATTLE: Speaker making deals. A20