Thread: Illegal immigrants jam our emergency rooms

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3331523

Illegal immigrants jam our emergency rooms

By Pius Kamau
Denver Post Columnist
DenverPost.com

After a surgical misadventure in Mexico, my patient came north across the border and found his way to the emergency room. While removing an infected hernia mesh, Mexican doctors had perforated his intestine.

Here in the United States, he received the care he needed: surgery and three weeks of the best attention that medicine and technology can offer. Sadly, he's only one of a river of illegal immigrants overwhelming the nation's ERs. The law requires we treat every emergency patient.

My medical colleagues - voiceless, politically neutral and unsung heroes - toil incessantly for America's uninsured and the undocumented.

In contrast, there are those who give nothing of themselves, who neither feed, bind wounds nor raise funds for the undocumented. They're talkers, journalists and political activists who use a lot of ink and energy excoriating anyone who as much as questions illegal immigration.

Today, health care is a leaky boat burdened by millions of uninsured Americans; illegal aliens are helping to sink it. Few know of the economic impact the undocumented have on our society and our health care system.

We pick up the tab in many ways for the undocumented - from burying their dead, to delivery of their babies, to emergency medical and surgical care. There are 300,000 babies born to undocumented mothers annually at a cost of $5,000 a baby.

In Colorado, Medicaid pays for 6,000 births for a total of $30 million annually. In 2002, California paid $79 million for births, Texas $74 million, Arizona $31 million and New Mexico $6 million.

Small hospitals can be overwhelmed. Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee, Ariz., spent $200,000 out of its $300,000 operating budget on illegal immigrants.

Some hospitals and emergency rooms have closed because they have been overrun by the uninsured and the undocumented.

As an immigrant myself, I'm sensitive to the plight of those crossing our borders, part of a giant global south-to-north migratory path - poverty to riches. They see America as a lifesaver, the shining mansion on the hill.

But as much as I sympathize with them, I must ask: How many more can we treat in our emergency rooms? When will the taxpayer say, "Enough!"? And when, if ever, should we expect the Mexican government to bear some responsibility for its citizens?

The issue of illegal immigration is often framed into left-right issue. It's neither. It's a grave American problem - more serious than Saddam Hussein's Iraq before the war and one that we all need to engage in rationally and dispassionately. It's also a matter of justice: On average, it takes as many as a dozen years for an African and 25 years for a Filipino professional to legally immigrate to the United States. After a hop, skip and jump, illegal immigrants can maneuver around the system in ways no other group is permitted.

My patient, illiterate and poor, deserved more from his surgeon, his folks and government back home. He came to the U.S. because Mexican medicine discriminates against the poor. And as awful as our system is, it has its own checks and balances; it's responsive to patients and to regulatory agencies and has community standards of care. This is something that can only come from a functioning democracy.

I believe many poor people wouldn't come to the U.S. if they could live a better life in Mexico and South America. Mexico must become a partner with the U.S. in immigration matters, rather than being a gleeful spectator.

Perhaps in this season of giving and gratitude, we should thank the doctor silently taking care of the undocumented alien for free.

Let's also acknowledge that many activists and critics have only empty words to offer. I hereby challenge them to raise funds to cover illegals' health care. In the meantime, let's all try to find one solution to this terrible problem: confronting Mexican authorities who must do more for their citizens.

Pius Kamau of Aurora is a thoracic and general surgeon. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the U.S. in 1971. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.

this is another excellent article to forward to editors and reporters in the pro -illegal papers

If its true that the government has told hospitals nation wide that they are not to deny services to illegal aliens, then if providing services is causing the hospital to go broke, the government is in the wrong. Maybe what the hosptials should do is fight for the right to write off the burden of those services rendered with their taxes, rather than charging us who pay taxes and us who pay into a health care program for the costs.

There are 300,000 babies born to undocumented mothers annually at a cost of $5,000 a baby.

THAT'S $1,500,000 PER YEAR FOR ANCHORS.

THEN WE GET TO SUPPORT THEM THRU HIGH SCHOOL!

Let's also acknowledge that many activists and critics have only empty words to offer. I hereby challenge them to raise funds to cover illegals' health care. In the meantime, let's all try to find one solution to this terrible problem: confronting Mexican authorities who must do more for their citizens.

YES!!! Confiscate all the 501 C 3 Public Charity Money in National Council of La Raza, MALDEF, Mecha, LULAC, ETC. and all their "affiliates"; give it to all the hospitals that provided all this medical care FOR FREE; then shut down all the 501 C 3 FRAUDS and prosecute their officers and employees for lobbying, "influencing legislation" and "impacting public policy" to end our nation in violation of our Internal Revenue Tax Laws.

Did you read that Michelle? Uh Huh...I've big orange jumpsuits that make your butt look big folded up and waitin' for you, Janet and the rest of the NCLR FRAUD GANG!!

Oh yeeeah. We're very serious! You all need to go to jail, and I believe you will.

That figure is missing three 000s it should be 1,500,000,000
or "One Billion Five Hundred Million" a year. That number is a larger figure than the one posted above.

If that were the end of it even that would be less of a problem but instead it is just the first charge picked by our taxpayers. The taxpayers are also expected to provide pediatric care and then their K-12 education. The ICE also puts a lower priority on deporting any adult illegal aliens who have American born children.