Report: Romney health care law helps illegal immigrants

Updated 1:42 p.m. ET

The Massachusetts health care law signed by then-governor Mitt Romney in 2006 includes a program that allows illegal immigrants to get medical treatment if they don't have insurance, according to a news story out today.

The Romney campaign is blaming Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, the Republican's successor, for making it easier for illegal immigrants to obtain care.

The Los Angeles Times story could be troublesome for Romney, who has repeatedly had to answer questions about the Massachusetts health care law as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination. Additionally, Romney has been attacking GOP rival Rick Perry as weak on illegal immigration because Texas grants in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants -- which Romney has called a "magnet."

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner says the newspaper article points out that Massachusetts established "just the kind of illegal immigration magnet Governor Romney claims to oppose."

The Times report about the Health Safety Net says the program cost more than $400 million last year and helped pay for 1.1 million hospital and clinical visits. But it is unclear how many illegal immigrants benefited, the story says, because the state does not keep that data.

"Federal law requires emergency medical care for illegal immigrants. And if illegal immigrants are getting access to additional health care in Massachusetts, it's liberal Gov. Deval Patrick that has made it easier for them to do so," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. "All of the regulatory activities involving the Health Safety Net Fund, including who could get care, were made long after Mitt Romney left office."

Tim Murphy, Massachusetts health and human services director under Romney, said Romney never intended the Health Safety Net program to include illegal immigrants.

"Our view when we signed the law was that all benefits would be for people in the commonwealth who were here legally," Murphy is quoted as saying in the LA Times story. He said the rules putting the program in place were written after Romney left the governor's office in 2007.

The story says Massachusetts health officials who helped write the law indicated there was "broad understanding" when Romney signed the measure that some people in the country illegally would benefit from the program.

Perry's campaign disputes that, citing rules adopted in 2004 while Romney was governor that state citizenship is not required for eligibility for the Massachusetts health care law.

"The law and rules he approved were clear about providing free health care to illegal immigrants," Miner said. The Perry campaign statement is linked here.

Saul, the Romney spokeswoman, said Romney's record on illegal immigration is clear and stands in contrast to Perry's actions as Texas governor. As Massachusetts governor, she said, Romney vetoed an in-state tuition bill for illegal immigrants and authorized state troopers to detain people based on their immigration status.