Thread: FAMILIES OF BURNED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS GRIEVE ...............

Families of burned illegal immigrants grieve while medical bills and questions mount

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - North County Times

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The recent wildfires here left a tragic toll among immigrant families, but they also left a financial cost that hospital officials will have to pay somehow.

Maria Guadalupe Beltran, a Vista mother of four, was one of 11 people who were rescued from the Harris fire near the border and treated for burn injuries at UCSD Medical Center. But those injuries claimed Beltran's life; on Nov. 6, she became one of at least seven migrants to die as a result of the fire.

Beltran risked her life attempting to cross the border illegally during one of the worst possible times, the October wildfires. The husband and children she left behind now face economic hardship in addition to their grief.

As families like Beltran's struggle with their own private tragedies, the costs incurred by hospitals for caring for the fire victims are part of a debate over illegal immigration that shows no signs of dissipating.

A month before the fires, county officials released a report estimating that illegal immigrants cost local hospitals $155 million in uncompensated medical care last year, mostly in the form of emergency room visits.

The study's authors said the figures "must be viewed with a certain amount of caution" because the estimates were based on anecdotal information and not hard statistics. But grieving families find it too easy to tally the cost of illegal immigration in human terms.

"I prayed to God that he let her live," said Felipe Mercado, Beltran's husband, holding back tears Thursday as his children played and watched TV in their Vista apartment. "I was with her a week and twice she had to be revived. She was a strong woman. I know she wanted to live. She fought very hard for her children."

A family's tragedy

Before her death, the family got by on the meager wages Mercado and Beltran earned selling tamales and champurrado, a traditional Mexican drink made from corn. A call in early October began a series of events that put the family in a tragic spiral, Mercado said.

The call was from Beltran's mother, telling her that her father had died. Against her husband's advice, she decided to travel to Mexico to attend the funeral. It was the first time she was back in Mexico since coming to the United States 10 years ago.

"At first, I told her don't go," Mercado said. "But she wanted to go, and she wanted me to back her decision."

Mercado reluctantly agreed, knowing the dangers of crossing the border, he said. Beltran took the couple's 1-year-old son and their 5-year-old daughter on the trip. As U.S. citizens, the children could cross the border easily.

Accompanying them was Beltran's brother, Nicolas.

They agreed to return in a week, but Beltran's mother fell ill after her father's burial. The decision to stay a few more days put Beltran in the path of the Harris fire, which began Oct. 21 north of Tecate.

The family agreed to pay a smuggler $3,000 to guide Beltran and her brother back across the border. Mercado would have to come up with $1,500 for his wife's fee. The children were driven by a family member back to San Diego.

It was supposed to take six hours to walk across the border near Tecate Peak. The mountain was already on fire Oct. 21 when the smuggler and his clients were last seen at about 11 a.m. in Tijuana.

"Monday came without news of them," Mercado said.

A body found

The Harris fire burned more than 90,000 acres and killed a man near Potrero who was trying to defend his property. The bodies of four people suspected of crossing the border illegally were also found Oct. 25 near Highway 94.

A volunteer search group known as the Desert Angels found the body of a man Nov. 4 near the top of Tecate Peak. The man is believed to be Juan Carlos Bautista Ocampo, a native of Chiapas, Mexico, who was crossing the border illegally attempting to return to San Marcos.

Matt Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego, said the agency rescued about 50 people who were injured in the fire. He said no further information was immediately available about those who were rescued.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the agency is not tracking the suspected illegal immigrants who were taken to the burn center at UC San Diego. Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the agency in San Diego, said they would keep track of them only if they brought them to the hospital.

"If we bring them in and we put a detainer on them, we'll pick them up," Mack said.

After days of desperate searching, Mercado said the Binational Emergency Medical Care Committee, a nonprofit group that helped look for his wife, contacted him Oct. 26. It wanted him to go to the burn center to identify one of the patients.

Mercado said he did not recognize the badly disfigured woman he saw on the hospital bed.

Then, he saw the white polish on the toenails. He remembered his wife painting them white for an outing to a pizza parlor with their children the Sunday before she left.

"After I recognized her, I felt a cold chill come over my body. A dark shadow came to me and I felt weak," he said. "The next thing I knew, I was in another room. They told me I fainted."

Despite the hospital's efforts, Beltran died of her injuries at 1:32 p.m. Nov. 6.

Who will pay?

Mercado said his wife had health insurance, provided through her U.S.-born children, to cover her medical costs. Dr. Thomas McAfee, UCSD's physician-in-chief, said he was unaware of Beltran's case, but said that the hospital had been able to get emergency Medi-Cal coverage for some of the patients.

Hospital officials said their duty is to care for patients regardless of their ability to pay.

"When we get patients during an emergency, our priority is to take care of the patients regardless of whether they are legal residents or not," said McAfee.

He said several patients, including two in critical condition, are still in the hospital. Because their care is ongoing, the hospital does not have a total cost for the suspected illegal immigrant patients.

McAfee said that during previous fires the average cost of care per burn victim was about $90,000. However, he cautioned that costs can vary widely depending on the care that is needed.

Federal law requires that hospitals provide emergency care to all people, including illegal immigrants. The government provides money for this care, but the funds cover only part of the costs.

A special Medi-Cal fund can reimburse costs to a hospital for some patients even if they are in the country illegally, McAfee said. But the fund pays for only a few days or until a patient is stabilized, he said.

There are also some federal funds that help offset the cost of providing care to illegal immigrants.

'It's a fixed pool (of money) and it's tightly restricted," he said. "So we end up submitting the application, but we never know what we're going to get."

In California, hospitals spent more than $1 billion in 2005 on health care for illegal immigrants that was not reimbursed by federal or state programs, according to federal government estimates. Meanwhile, the state received $66 million in federal money in 2005. The county received about $1.4 million.

Illegal immigration critics often fault migrants for the rise in health care costs, but immigrant rights advocates point to some studies that indicate migrants tend to use fewer medical services than native-born residents.

Some analysts say the actual costs are difficult to measure due to the shadowy nature of the population.

An outspoken critic of illegal immigration, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said the federal government should pay more of the health care bill, but added illegal immigrant patients should be returned to their country as soon as possible.

"The federal government ought to reimburse 100 percent of the cost" to local hospitals, Bilbray said. "I just ask them to take them into their (country's) system as soon as they are able. They should be transferring those patients into their hospitals."

Bilbray, who serves as chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, said most of his colleagues in Congress are not eager to fully reimburse local governments and hospitals for the cost of illegal immigration. If they did, they would have to acknowledge the cope of the problem, he said.

A family without Christmas

Mercado can't help but acknowledge the enormous challenge before him.

The grieving father said he is now two months behind on rent. He said he has been unable to work since his wife's death.

People have donated canned food and some money. The Binational Emergency Medical Care Committee established a fund on the family's behalf; about $400 had been donated the last time he checked, he said.

An altar in the wall of his living room includes pictures of the family, flowers and posters of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. Next to the altar, there's a Christmas tree donated by a neighbor, but Mercado said he hasn't been able to finish decorating it.

When the couple arrived 10 years ago, they planned to work a few years, save money, build a home in Mexico and go back to get married, Mercado said. They nearly finished the house in Mexico, but they never had a wedding.

At dusk Thursday, his 5-year-old daughter lighted the tree and smiled.

Mercado said that were it not for his children, he would not celebrate the holiday.

"It's not Christmas for me," he said. "I don't feel like decorating the tree, there are no presents for me ... I can't accept what's happening. I want to wake up from this bad dream."

To donate, call First Bank at (619) 425-5000. The Mercado Family Fund account number is 94841-00475.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12 ... ogcomments

Bill the Mexican govornment the cost of the Medical bills and then deport them!

Once again the plan is of their building a house first and then retuning which instead puts them in the position of having created a continuing expense which they can then only afford by remaining here. Then as they have created a problem for themselves we are expected to take care of their situation for them.

and we American citizens get to pay a higher mortgage rate to cover this crap....

the ripple effects of illegals just keep coming

She had some medical coverage because of her "U.S." children, yet they never planned to keep them here. Just use this country's benefits for awhile, then live the Mexican dream. How much did this patriotic citizen's bills cost Americans? I mean this patriotic Mexican citizen?

Mercado said his wife had health insurance, provided through her U.S.-born children, to cover her medical costs.

Ok, I could not get past this bombshell! Please, please tell me this couldn't possibly be true!

Beltran risked her life attempting to cross the border illegally during one of the worst possible times, the October wildfires. The husband and children she left behind now face economic hardship in addition to their grief.

She was a criminal who didn't want to get caught, so she had to sneak around in the deser in the darkenss of night in order to get back home.

Had she been here legally, she could have crossed the border in a safer manner.

Her mistake was making choices that made her a criminal which, in turn, made her have to risk her life in order not to be caught.

I have zero sympathy for her. Zero.

Mercado said his wife had health insurance, provided through her U.S.-born children, to cover her medical costs








Wait a minute.......how is this possible?



There is really something wrong with this story. I know that here in AZ, when benefits were yanked for illegals, there was a big fuss among most of my tenants because, in addition to losing their second and third source of "income", the adults and foreign born offspring lost their dental and medical. They still have no coverage. None at all.

So, was this woman fraudulently using one of her kids' medical to be treated? Perhaps in collusion with medical professionals not caring about anything but the money they receive and treating anybody even if they are using someone else's medical?

Send the bill
wrote on Dec 9, 2007 10:27 AM:
to Calderon, after all where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12 ... ogcomments

To donate, call First Bank at (619) 425-5000. The Mercado Family Fund account number is 94841-00475.

hmmmm....I find it interesting that they had $3,000 to give to a coyote to get them back illegally here, and now we are being asked to donate?!?!

Spare me. I'll donate to a worthy charity instead of a law breaker!!!!