Immigration Reform Protesters, Boss Tweed via Creative Commons

One such question: should the US provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants? Perhaps a more difficult question is whether advocating for the extension of healthcare benefits will end up hurting immigrants more than helping them by prompting Republicans to recoil from the idea of expanded benefits altogether.

“I am doubtful that comprehensive immigration policy reform would lead to the provision of health benefits to those would gain legal immigration status or naturalization under the new policies,” said Vivian Ho, an economics professor and chair of the Health Economics Institute at Rice University, on a fiercely practical note. 

According to provisions in the Affordable Care Act, lawful immigrants who have made their homes in the country for less than five years may benefit from health insurance exchanges and obtain income-based subsidies, but remain ineligible for Medicaid benefits. The ACA provision is certainly a step towards compromise, but is it enough? 

With political parties still fiercely butting heads on immigration policy, healthcare seems far away from the discussion, at least for now. But as with any political issue, the answers to these looming questions vary according to whom you talk to.

According to Joel Hay, a professor of health policy and economics at USC, “since Republicans don't like Obamacare at all, there is no way they are going to help expand it to immigrants.” Hay based his prediction on political precedents. 

One of the interesting parts of this debate is that people tend to evaluate immigration reform on a very moralistic level, often ignoring the economic side of the issue. “On one side people could argue that they shouldn’t gain access to it because they don’t pay into it,” explains Terri Givens, an associate professor of government at University of Texas at Austin. “But there is a good reason to extend [healthcare] because they are using more costly emergency care now….It will save us in the long run by reduced emergency costs and an increase in tax revenue.”

Even people who often put their checkbooks where their mouths are [fiscal conservatives] may be inclined to ignore the economic considerations of this divisive issue, allowing their ideology to keep them from facing the economic truths. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, California spends 1.4 billion dollars annually on uncompensated medical costs for undocumented residents, a sum that would be drastically cut by having immigrants pay into their own healthcare coverage. “Many [immigrants] are stilled cared for by local public health providers at the taxpayers' expense,” reasons Ho. “Offering these individuals access to the ACA would lead some of them to contribute more out-of-pocket for their own healthcare.”

While the economic arguments may make this the expansion of healthcare to immigrants look obvious, Congressman Henry Waxman remains acutely aware that political landmines are never that easy to navigate. “Rep. Waxman has been in support of benefits for immigrants who are here legally” explains his Press Secretary, Karen Lightfoot, "yet it is difficult to envision Republicans changing their position to allow for benefits for immigrants.”

The heated debate about whether or not to extend healthcare coverage stems in large part from a television advertisement campaigning that the California Endowment launched last month in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The 60-second video is intended to bolster support for an expansion of medical insurance to all Californians, not just legal citizens. Even after national healthcare goes into effect, three to four million residents, a whopping ten percent of Californians, may remain ineligible for coverage due to their undocumented immigrant status according to the Los Angeles Times.  

The advertisement features undocumented residents who have become integral parts of the their communities yet are ineligible for healthcare or health insurance. The commercial raises the issue that despite a national referendum to provide everyone with healthcare benefits, they apparently do not fall under the umbrella of “everyone.” 

Whether this California campaign will succeed in its goal of expanding healthcare benefits remains to be seen, but it has already sparked an important discussion about the next steps of immigration reform.

Contact Staff Reporter Sara Newman here and follow her on Twitter.