California Democrats are pushing the White House for an exemption to allow an estimated 50,000 illegal immigrants in the state to buy healthcare on the Obamacare exchange.

The 37 members of the California Democratic delegation sent a letter Monday to make the case for the state becoming the first in the nation to get a waiver of the healthcare law's provision preventing illegal immigrants from collecting benefits.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara, who led the effort on the state level, says the exemption would not impact taxpayers or the state's budget, the Daily Caller reports.

But GOP lawmakers are skeptical, pointing to repeated instances of the susceptibility of Obamacare to fraud.

"The president and his party said a great many things about the Affordable Care Act that clearly did not turn out to be true, this would be one more," California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa tells the Daily Caller.

"Our view was the likelihood of fraud is high, and there is nothing to stop somebody, a guest to this country — legal or illegal — from purchasing health care, so it does seem to be a false premise, because the premise isn't can they buy healthcare, they already can, like car insurance."

"So, it's really a question of something for which there would clearly be a subsidy and it becomes a question of subsidizing health care for people who are unlawfully in this country," he added.

The White House hasn't yet responded to the lawmakers' waiver request, the Washington Examiner reports.



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