Recession cuts illegal aliensâ€™ health care SOB

**JohnDoe2** · 03-15-2009, 06:50 PM

Recession cuts illegal aliensâ€™ health care

Calif. county among 1st to take drastic step, deny non-emergency services

updated 12:05 p.m. PT, Sun., March. 15, 2009

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Graciela Barrios, an undocumented immigrant with few resources, has long relied on the county health clinic for the advice, medication and tests that have kept her diabetes under control.

But next month, Barrios and thousands like her will be on their own, and many more people across the nation face the same fate.

Bowing to recession-related budget pressures, Sacramento County recently took the drastic step of cutting non-emergency health services for illegal immigrants. Contra Costa County, on the east side of San Francisco Bay, will vote on a similar measure Tuesday.

Local health systems in other states are facing similar decisions as health officials find themselves trapped between dwindling federal, state and local funding streams and the growing number of newly uninsured who need services.

â€œThe general situation there is being faced by nearly every health department across the country, and if not right now, shortly,â€

**JohnDoe2** · 03-15-2009, 06:56 PM

RELATED

County proposes to cut health care for illegal immigrants and prisoners . . .
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By Matt O'Brien ...
www.contracostatimes.com/politics/ci_11822044 - 59k - Cached

**vortex** · 03-15-2009, 07:04 PM

While this may be bad for legal citizens, just asking legality questions will ensure that legal citizens get healthcare without paying for the birthing of anchor babies or hangnail treatment. That will give health departments an idea of what to check for as far as communicable diseases these illegals may have slithered across the border with. The only medical care I am willing to pay for is that provided in a jail, while they await deportation.

**JohnDoe2** · 03-15-2009, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by vortex

While this may be bad for legal citizens, just asking legality questions will ensure that legal citizens get healthcare without paying for the birthing of anchor babies or hangnail treatment. That will give health departments an idea of what to check for as far as communicable diseases these illegals may have slithered across the border with. The only medical care I am willing to pay for is that provided in a jail, while they await deportation.

(mod edit)

**JohnDoe2** · 03-15-2009, 08:34 PM

The feds haven't solved this problem.

The states haven't solved this proble.

So now the counties have to solve it ?

**miguelina** · 03-15-2009, 09:00 PM

[quote]For Barrios, the financial crisis has had a double impact. The same economic forces that slashed Sacramento Countyâ€™s sales and property tax revenues took her husbandâ€™s job in a landscaping firm, and the familyâ€™s bills are piling up, she said.

â€œI have no insurance, no resources, nothing to fall back on,â€