If Congress passes Obamacare - about a 50/50 chance at this juncture - illegal immigrants will not have to worry about anyone checking the status of their citizenship to confirm their eligibility for this entitlement.

That's because House Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee defeated a reasonable amendment from Nevada's Dean Heller (R) that would have "enforced income, eligibility and immigration-verification screening on all ObamaCare patients," according to Michelle Malkin in her syndicated column appearing in the New York Post:

Immigration analyst James R. Edwards Jr. reported last week in National Review that "no health legislation on the table requires federal, state or local agencies -- or private institutions receiving federal funds -- to check the immigration status of health-program applicants, so some of the money distributed via Medicaid and tax credits inevitably would go to illegal aliens." Moreover, the Senate Finance Committee plan creates a preference for illegal aliens by exempting them from the mandate to buy insurance.

That's right. Law-abiding, uninsured Americans would be fined if they didn't submit to the ObamaCare prescription. Law-breaking border-crossers and deportation fugitives would be spared.

For years, advocates of uncontrolled immigration have argued that illegals aren't getting free health care, and that even if they were, they'd not be draining government budgets. The fiscal crisis in California gives lie to those talking points. In March, the Associated Press reported that Sacramento and Contra Costa counties were slashing staff and closing clinics due to the prohibitive costs of providing non-emergency health services for illegals.

"The general situation there is being faced by nearly every health department across the country, and if not right now, shortly," Robert M. Pestronk of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told the AP.