The Truth About Health Care Covering Illegal Immigrants
ROBERTS: Caution, that beverage you're about to enjoy could be extremely hot. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. If you just have to have that mint chocolate chip frappuccino blended cream no whip half caf at Starbucks, you're going to need a little extra coin. Starbucks raising prices by as much as 30 percent -- 30 cents, rather, on some of its more complex concoctions but the coffee chain says it's going to charge less for just a plain old cup of Joe, cutting prices by as much as 15 cents.</s>CHETRY: I think you ordered that before.</s>ROBERTS: Actually, it's the pumpkin frappuccino that I love.</s>CHETRY: You can't wait with just a little tiny bit of cinnamon.</s>ROBERTS: I'm just a plain latte kind of guy.</s>CHETRY: Well, a bill that would cut California's prison population by 27,000 inmates has now passed the state Senate. It's intended to trim $1.2 billion from the state's corrections budget. That plan would allow lower level inmates to serve out the last year of their sentences under house arrest. It also reduces the number of parolees returned to prison on technical violations. Governor Schwarzenegger is supporting the bill but it does face strong opposition in the state assembly.</s>ROBERTS: And the heated health care wars may be taking its toll on President Obama. According to the latest "Washington Post"/ABC News poll, 49 percent of Americans say they are confident the president will make the right decisions for the country. That is down from 60 percent in late April. And as President Obama struggles to regain his grip on the debate, he took his fight yesterday to conservative talk radio.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm confident we're going to get it done. And as far as negotiations with Republicans, my attitude has always been, let's see if we can get this done with some consensus. I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involve in this process. I think early on a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, look, let's not give them a victory.</s>ROBERTS: President Obama also fired up his liberal base at the Democratic Party headquarters telling supporters not to believe reports that he is off his game. He can still get the three-pointer from the outside, he said. And one hot-button issue in the health care debate, who's going to pay for illegal immigrants' health care. President Obama says they won't be covered under his plan, but is that really the case? Here's CNN's Cheryl Jackson.</s>CASSANDRA SENIOR, UNINSURED: It's not as easy as everyone thinks it is. It's not will power. You need groups like this.</s>CHERYL JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cassandra Senior is a recovering drug addict. She is getting free treatment at health care alternative systems in Chicago. Most of the patients here are Hispanic and have no insurance.</s>SENIOR: You don't have the money when you come out of it to pay for these services.</s>JACKSON: Marco Jacomi (ph) runs the mental health center.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This room -- this is...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senora.</s>JACKSON: At the Eri (ph) Family Health Center, Dr. Frank Castillo sees dozens of patients every day. He doesn't know who is legal or who is not. He says he looks into their eyes and not into their background.</s>DR. FRANK CASTILLO: I just take care of the person in front of me who comes to me for help.</s>JACKSON (on camera): Eighty-four percent of the patients here are Hispanic. Forty percent are uninsured. Now no one here has asked about their immigration status. They're treated regardless of that status and regardless of their ability to pay. (voice-over): Castillo is on one side of the debate of illegal immigrants and health care. Jesse Ruiz is on the other.</s>JESSE RUIZ, ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: Before we start creating any perverse incentives and worrying about undocumented immigrants, we have to worry about the citizens who are here today and the legal residents.</s>JACKSON: Ruiz supports Obama's health care vision, and thinks those in the country illegally should not benefit. But he says when life or death is an issue, there is a solution.</s>RUIZ: The great thing about our nation is that we do have laws that we don't allow people to die in our streets.</s>JACKSON: Activist Esther Sciammarella says everyone, regardless of status, should get treatment for contagious diseases.</s>ESTHER SCIAMMARELLA, HISPANIC HEALTH COALITION: It's like the H1N1. If it was an epidemic, same as pandemic, we need to consider everybody.</s>JACKSON: Senior, who is now drug free, says any type of medical treatment for the uninsured benefits everyone.</s>SENIOR: You have people out there who are stealing. You have people out there who are robbing. You have people out there who are committing all sorts of crimes to try to feed their addiction and the society is paying for it whether they realize it or not.</s>JACKSON: Obama says he would like to include the children of illegal immigrants in health care reform because they're going to be playing on the same playgrounds going to school with other children, making the possibility of spreading disease very high. There are several hundred thousand children in this country illegally -- John and Kiran.</s>ROBERTS: Cheryl Jackson for us this morning. Cheryl, thanks so much.</s>CHETRY: Talking about the stimulus, where these dollars are being spent. Well, in one community, it means saving their police force. We're going to show you that. It's 16 1/2 minutes after the hour.