Published: 03.23.2007

Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Kidney care for entrants is the right thing to do What's your take?
Have something to say about it? Join metro news columnist Ernesto Portillo Jr. at azstarnet.com/special/portillochat for a live one-hour online chat at noon today.
Let 'em die. How else can we interpret the harsh reaction some Arizonans had to a recent agreement allowing emergency kidney dialysis services for low-income patients — regardless of the patients' immigration status?
The settlement was reached between the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and the William E. Morris Institute for Justice, a Phoenix-based public-interest law firm. It stems from a 2002 class-action lawsuit filed against the state.
"Outpatient kidney dialysis is emergency service," said Ellen Katz of the Morris Institute. She said the settlement conforms to federal law.
The state said about 250 legal and undocumented immigrants are presently eligible for dialysis under the settlement. How many of them are undocumented is not known, said Katz.
For people with severe kidney failure, a lack of treatment means they'll die.
Apparently that grim outcome is fine with people who insist public funds should never be spent on undocumented immigrants.
I could say shame on people with such a cold attitude about human life. Instead I'll just say thank goodness the legal settlement makes the right choice.
What's your take?
Have something to say about it? Join metro news columnist Ernesto Portillo Jr. at azstarnet.com/special/portillochat for a live one-hour online chat at noon today.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/174904


Letter to the editor:

Citizens also need health care
Re: the March 20 article "AZ to pay for immigrants' dialysis."
I was irritated to read this front-page article. My husband has been a hard-working, taxpaying contractor for 30 years, making jobs for individuals and assuming all the liability and uncertainty of running his own business. We pay astronomical costs for health insurance for ourselves and our employees, and many of our medical expenses are not covered. Now he is facing two surgeries and an uncertain future of our business, plus the accumulation of even more medical bills. This is due to the physical injuries he has acquired from years of working. He does not qualify for worker's compensation benefits.
Where is our help for medical expenses? Don't U.S.-born citizens deserve as much as legal and illegal immigrants? It is past time for a national health insurance program. It is unfair.
Lisa Stultz
Small-business owner, Tucson