But Dey Tuk Ur Jerbs

by Patrick Appel

DiA wants to know if legal immigrants will be covered by the health care bill:

As it happens, legal immigrants are by and large younger and healthier than the overall population, so including them in the universal health-insurance system would make it cheaper, not more expensive. But even if that were not the case, legal immigrants in America should be covered by the same health-insurance system as everyone else because that is the decent way to run a society. Legal immigrants are not lawbreakers. They are not parasites. We would not expect an American citizen who has put down roots in France or Japan to be kicked out of the country if she develops a serious illness, and we should not be doing the equivalent to legal immigrants in America.

Agreed on all counts. Ryan Avent has argued that illegal immigrants should be included as well, but that isn't on the table.