SB217 creates new Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) “benefits” for non-citizen children aged 18 or younger who are not lawfully present in United States.
The House passed SB217 on March 1, 2023, by a vote of 64 to 7. We have assigned pluses to the nays because persons who enter the United States illegally—which, by definition, is a crime—ought not to be permitted sanctuary or residency in Utah, let alone be considered eligible for CHIP “benefits.” Besides, neither health care nor social welfare is the legitimate object of government. CHIP, like Medicaid and other so-called federal and state-level ‘entitlement’ programs, relies on the unjust use and taxation of the American citizen’s income, a violation of not only Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, but the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment.