SANDRA SMITH (CO-ANCHOR): A stage full of Democratic presidential candidates last week supporting health care coverage for illegal immigrants -- I should say health insurance for all illegal immigrants. So how would that impact our current health care system in America? Let's bring in Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News contributor and professor of medicine at NYU Lagone's medical center. This is something everybody's talking about. That was quite a defining moment on that stage last week and sort of out of touch with where the American people stand on this issue. You saw those hands go up and your message to those Democrats on that stage are what, as a doctor?
DR. MARC SIEGEL (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): What you just said Sandra, which is health insurance is not health care. And that poll that you're talking about, a recent poll just showed that 59% of Americans don't believe --
SMITH: Yeah, we have that poll. It's the latest CNN poll showing that 59% do not think that health insurance coverage provided by the government should actually be available to undocumented immigrants, Dr. Siegel.
SIEGEL: And here's why. Here's why. Because we already have a physician shortage. We already have a nursing shortage. If we give more people insurance, we're going to decrease access to those who already have health insurance, and they won't get health care. Emergency rooms and community clinics in this country, which the community clinics service over 20 million people, they must provide care to everyone, whether you have insurance or not. So we have a big safety net. And if you're here illegally, you're still going to get taken care of. So when the Democrats come out with the word insurance, they're obscuring the difference between health care, which is what I give in an emergency room or in a clinic, and health insurance, which is your ability to get there. You get there, you find a big waiting line. You find a doctor's not available. So we would be taking away care from those who have it already.
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SIEGEL: Physicians are already swamped. We already have to use electronic health records, which is making us work way into the night writing notes. We already have to deal with the Medicaid expansion, which by the way, brings millions and millions of people into the clinics, into the hospitals, into the doctor's office, and we're swamped from that. And we're taking care of Americans there. So the idea of adding more and more people to that is very problematic, and again, these are people that already have access to emergency care.
