It’s been over 6 months since President Obama stepped into this mess that is called America. Governing our country these days is like trying to control a pre-school class, with unruly, spoiled children throwing temper tantrums every second.

His first promise, health care reform, a supposedly easy concept, has turned out not to be easy at all. Instead, it’s been a powder keg. How is it possible that something all Americans can and do agree upon, the necessity of protecting our people with access to health care for all, can be so controversial? Add to that the latest from anti-immigrant forces and you have a long, drawn out battle ahead. Consider the following (courtesy of AILA national) as we try to rebut the myth that “Immigrants Are a Threat to Workable Health Care Reform”:

FACT: The more people who pay into a system of health insurance, the more everyone benefits. An important function of health insurance is to pool risks and use premiums collected from the healthy to pay for the medical care of those who need it.

FACT: U.S. citizens make up the majority of those who are uninsured. U.S. citizens make up the majority of the uninsured (78%), while legal and undocumented immigrants account for 22% of the non-elderly uninsured.

FACT: Immigrants do not impose a disproportionate financial burden on the U.S. health care system. According to a July 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health, immigrants use less medical care, and less expensive care, even when they have health insurance.

As our country debates how health care legislation is to be written and passed into law, let’s all remember to stress the positive contributions of immigrants to health care in this country for only once we bring those without insurance “out of the shadows” will we be able to begin the debate to bring those without legal status “out of the shadows”.