Thread: The illegal effect: Who pays for treatments?

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/0 ... sa0101.htm

The illegal effect: Who pays for treatments?
While politicians are deadlocked on the issues of immigration and uninsured Americans, hospitals and doctors are caught between helping everyone and staying in business.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. Jan. 1/8, 2007.

Every week or so, another person sends the same scathing e-mail to April Foran, who answers electronic communications for Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas. "Does our public health care system treat illegals better than American citizens? Yes it does!" it reads.

A then-pregnant military wife -- upset with Parkland's charity care for illegal immigrants -- wrote it in the fall, said Foran, director of corporate communications.

Some people read the e-mail and write to thank Parkland for providing health care to people who need it most. But others write to tell Ron Anderson, MD, Parkland's president and CEO, that he should force undocumented pregnant women out of the hospital to have their "anchor babies" in the street.

Welcome to the debate over U.S. immigration policy, health care style. Parkland exemplifies how some hospitals and physicians get caught in the middle. The hospital system is struggling to balance federal law, public opinion, a crushing and costly load of uninsured patients, and its responsibility to patients.

The hospital legally can't and doesn't discriminate between illegal immigrants and citizens, says Dr. Anderson, head of Parkland since 1982. Doctors have an oath to care for people, he said. Only the federal government can enforce immigration law.

The legal and ethical obligation to treat illegal immigrants puts extra pressure on a system already providing vast amounts of care to patients who can't pay.

Parkland, in majority-Hispanic Dallas County, and its 10 health centers accumulated $409 million in uncompensated care charges in fiscal year 2005. The system had $1.04 billion in revenues, including $329 million in local property taxes, during the same period.

Anchor babies should not be citizens.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Anchor babies should not be citizens.

No they should not be, but just another thing Congress has done nothing about.

If they had their babies in their homes in Mexico than they should do it here. They also need to get rid of that anchor baby policy. Sure they have a lot of kids becasue each one is income as they are entitled to welfare. Just think if they had 4 kids here and got $500 a month per kid that is $2,000 a month and explains why they can afford to buy houses with their minimal income. That welfare money is guaranteed so getting a mortgage is guaranteed. This ticks me off as I work and make more that they do but I can't afford to buy a house.

Don't forget how by using mutliple fake identities they can double or triple their welfare income. I recently saw a couple in the grocery store, and looking over the man's shoulder I saw he was showing his wife/spouse several U.S. government checks for $1600 each. The checks had the same first name, but had diferent last names, and they were both giggling and laughing and mocking the stupid gringos (in Spanish, of course) for their idiotic genorosity, that they most assuredly were so grateful for as they filled their shopping cart with baby fromula, diapers and cervesas. Of course, when I later saw them in the checkout line, they paid for their groceries with a state of CA EBT card, meaning electronic food stamps, of course. Then in the parking lot, I see them load the hundreds of dollars worth of groceries into a brand new king cab truck with... yup, you guessed it.. Mexico license plates. Isn't America wonderful?

Reptile09: that makes my blood boil. I see some things but as much as I don't shop much in Miami as I can't stand seeing them block an aisle at the grocery store while speaking Spanish. You say excuse me and they look at you funny. I believe it happens here big time as well. I think we need to see if we can get this on video tape or get pictures, put it on line and send it to the media.
The sicker part of this is the fact if they get caught scamming and yes some have in Miami, they go to jail here and get their butt kicked out of the country. They have no criminal record in Mexico and can always come back. If an American citizen does that when in dire need and gets caught they not only go to jail but also have a criminal record and then have difficulty in getting a job. Talk about discrimination!

Yeah, it does make your blood boil, on so many levels. You'd at least think they would at least be less snooty about it. Awhile back, when I was at the same store, I saw an older Mexican woman with several small children, obviously their grandmother. She was showing them items in the produce section, and when one of them said 'look, apples', the woman scoldingly corrected him, saying, 'no, no, no... esta es manzanas'. Then she went on to correct the kid everytime he spoke in English, telling him the names of the items on the shelves, but only in Spanish. And when he started counting out some things in English, she said, 'no, es uno, dos, tres...'. It made me want to slap the old bag in the face. At least the kid was trying to speak English, and there she was reprimanding him for not using Spanish.

They have Spanish tattooed on their kids brain in Miami as well. This is thanks to the parents and grandparents. My poor daughter sees it all the time at police explorers meetings. When they are not doing an actual activity the Hispanics speak Spanish all the time and it is mostly the girls. After she complained and the comment by Tancredo was made about Miami being a third world country the officer in charge has really been putting his foot down on it.