Thread: Bill Requires Patients to Prove Citizenship Status

I read in the news last week a hospital birthing ward had to close because many undocumented females were giving birth to too many babies and the hospital ran out of funds to keep the birthing unit open. Would have post the news but, lost web link due to computer failure.

WOMEN eNews - January 21, 2011

Hospital Maternity Wards Are Closing Across U.S.

Naomi Abraham
WeNews Correspondent

More women of child-rearing age are uninsured and dependent on medical assistance. That is tightening the financial noose around hospital maternity care and causing longer waits and travel time for pregnant women.

In August 2009 more than 100 people, mainly woman, gathered in the parking lot of Summa Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital in Wadsworth, Ohio--a town of 20,000 in the northeast part of the state--to protest the threatened closing of the maternity ward there. Two months later it was gone.

Fast forward to December 2010 and another crowd of about 100, most of them nurses working at the John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix. They were rallying in front of the hospital to stop the closure of the obstetric unit there. Most of those nurses will be out of work in early February, when the hospital proceeds with plans to close its birthing facilities.

The number of maternity wards that are closing across the country are hard to track. But a Google Internet search shows the flashing lights of protests and outcries in numerous U.S. communities. From New Jersey to Washington state, in urban and rural areas, maternity services are at risk. In 2008, about 4.2 million infants were born in the U.S., down slightly from the 4.3 million the year before--not a sufficient number to explain the closings.

Major explanations are high medical malpractice premiums in this specialty and a rising dependence on Medicaid reimbursement, which cover, on average, 88 percent of the actual costs.

Health Care Coverage Decreasing
Amid a tough recession, the numbers of women of childbearing age who lack private health care coverage rose by 1.3 million between 2008 and 2009, according to a September 2010 report by the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive health researcher. In 2009, 22 percent of all women of childbearing age were uninsured and almost 15 percent were on Medicaid, according to Guttmacher.

Chicago, meanwhile, provides an overall indication of the rising level of need for public medicine. The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, a hospital trade association, says hospitals in the Windy City provided $1.2 billion in free care in 2008, a 16-percent jump from 2007.

Those overall cost pressures are particularly hard on maternity care.

In Pennsylvania--where approximately two-thirds of births are covered by medical assistance and the Medicaid reimbursement rate is below the national average at 82 percent--39 hospitals have closed their maternity wards since 1997. That leaves the remaining wards bursting at the seams and women suffering delayed care.

In the southeastern Pennsylvania town of Norristown, expectant mothers covered by Medicaid have to wait 11 and a half weeks, when their first trimester is almost over, before they see an obstetrician, says Letty Thall, policy director at the Maternity Care Coalition, a Philadelphia-based maternity and infant health advocacy organization.

Similar in Other States
A spot check of other states finds similar problems. For example, in New York City at least five hospitals have ceased providing maternity care since 2003.

In Alabama, the number of hospitals performing obstetrics has declined to a current 32 from 58 in 1980, according to a report by the University of Alabama.

In Kentucky, according to the Center for Rural Health, a research department at the University of Kentucky, for every 100,000 rural Kentucky residents, there are an average of seven obstetricians, compared to 11 in the metro areas of the state.

In September Mary Breckinridge Hospital in Hyden, which provided maternity care to mothers living in the Appalachian Mountain region of Kentucky, closed its maternity ward. It was the only hospital in the area that promoted natural birth. Expectant mothers must now travel an hour or more for prenatal and birthing care.

Kelli Haywood is the only Lamaze-certified childbirth educator in the mountain areas of eastern Kentucky. She says most hospitals who service multiple counties have only one or two obstetricians on staff.

"I have heard of woman giving birth on the side of the road," she says.

http://www.momobile.org/HospitalMaterni ... theUS.html

How did we ever reach this point in America?

Originally Posted by Pisces_2010

I read in the news last week a hospital birthing ward had to close because many undocumented females were giving birth to too many babies and the hospital ran out of funds to keep the birthing unit open. Would have post the news but, lost web link due to computer failure.

When you loose a link you can find the article by doing a google search for it.

Like this for your article.

Type the name of the city or the name of the hospital and the words maternity ward closing in a GOOGLE search box or Yahoo search box, etc. and click search and it will take you to articles about that subject in that city and you can pick out the one you want.

I just used the words "maternity ward closing" and that is one of the articles I got.

Most of the patients here will be illegals. A large percentage of them live in South Miami Dade. Also how many illegals worked on the construction of this?


http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/02/12/ja ... cal-tower/

Jackson South Celebrates Grand Opening Of New Medical Tower
February 12, 2011 7:14 PM

MIAMI (CBS4) – Jackson South Community Hospital welcomed the Miami-Dade community to its new medical tower during its grand opening celebration Saturday. The expansion doubled the size of the existing building and cost $102 million.

The hospital held its grand opening community celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and introduced the spacious, state-of-art Jackson South tower building and new entrance to the hospital to the public. The renovation and expansion of the hospital will “enable Jackson to better meet the needs of the growing community in south Miami-Dadeâ€

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by Pisces_2010

I read in the news last week a hospital birthing ward had to close because many undocumented females were giving birth to too many babies and the hospital ran out of funds to keep the birthing unit open. Would have post the news but, lost web link due to computer failure.

When you loose a link you can find the article by doing a google search for it.

Like this for your article.

Type the name of the city or the name of the hospital and the words maternity ward closing in a GOOGLE search box or Yahoo search box, etc. and click search and it will take you to articles about that subject in that city and you can pick out the one you want.

I just used the words "maternity ward closing" and that is one of the articles I got.

OK, will do! Thanks a lot John...

Hearing set on bill requiring hospitals to check patients' immigration status
Feb. 14, 2011 12:00 AM



The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing today on a bill that would require hospitals to check patients' immigration status. Senate Bill 1405 would require hospitals to confirm an individual is a legal resident before admitting him or her for non-emergency care. The hospital would have to notify federal immigration officers if the individual was not in the country legally. The bill would allow hospitals to provide emergency care to illegal immigrants, but it would require them to report the individuals once the care was completed. Hospitals that failed to comply with the law could be sued. The committee also would hear a number of other controversial bills, including one that would require presidential candidates to prove their citizenship in order to get on the ballot in Arizona and another that would prohibit school governing boards from banning the possession of a concealed weapon. The hearing is at 2 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix. - Alia Beard Rau

www.azcentral.com

Originally Posted by Pisces_2010

How did we ever reach this point in America?

the price of freedom is eternal vigilance , looks like someone feel asleep at the wheel .

Related

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-228079.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Struggling Public Hospital in Miami Cuts Off Dialysis

Jan 7, 2010 ... The Jackson Health System in Miami decided to stop paying for dialysis for ... a major public hospital in Miami, to stop paying for kidney dialysis for ... A third of the unassigned group consists of illegal immigrants, ...

http://ezinearticles.com/?Miami-Hospita ... id=3545322

THAT IS SO SAD.

What will the low income diabetics do to survive?