The Young And The Undocumented

Matt Welch pokes a hole in Obama's logic:

Stepping aside from the welfare-for-illegals debate (which is what animates most interest in the topic), my question is this: If the government is coercing John and Jane Healthy to buy insurance so that the rest of us have to pay less money for their emergency room visits, on what planet does the same argument not apply to Juan y Juana Undocumento? (Or, if you prefer the real reason for forced insurance-buying, why should only the documented uninsured cross-subsidize their elders?) If we're really going to penalize twentysomethings for not buying insurance–and recall that as a candidate, back when he opposed Hillary Clinton's mandatory insurance plan, Obama said "To force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty"–doesn't this mean that illegal residents will essentially enjoy an exemption from state sanction?