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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Report: $2bln Medicaid program mostly helps illegal immigrants

    Published: 13 February, 2013, 23:58
    rt.com


    AFP Photo / David McNew

    President Obama has repeatedly pledged not to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants. But what’s often overlooked is that a Medicaid program annually provides $2 billion of free emergency care to patients, most of whom are illegal immigrants.

    In trying to garner support for the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the administration and those supporting the law promised that illegal immigrants would not gain coverage from the new healthcare legislation. But what many don’t realize is that for decades, illegal immigrants have been receiving free healthcare under the Emergency Medicaid program, Kaiser Health News reports.

    The health insurance program pays for $2 billion of annual emergency treatment for patients consisting mostly of illegal immigrants. Since hospitals are not allowed to turn away patients with an emergency medical condition, they frequently treat illegal immigrants, many of which appear in emergency rooms for help delivering a baby.

    “We can’t turn them away,” Joanne Aquilina, chief financial officer of the Florida-based Bethesda Healthcare System, told Kaiser Health News. Due to its proximity to farmland that employs illegal immigrants, Bethesda Health takes in many immigrants. Nearly one-third of its 2,900 births are paid by Emergency Medicaid, which provides care for illegal immigrants and homeless people. Hospitals are not allowed to ask patients whether they are in the US illegally, and are only able to determine their status after treating them.

    Emergency Medicaid is available for low-income, uninsured individuals suffering from serious medical conditions that require an emergency visit. Those who are eligible are not required to pay for the services they receive.

    But since hospitals typically cannot determine their emergency patients’ legality until after treatment, illegal immigrants are able to continuously reap the benefits of the government-funded healthcare program. A 2007 report by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that in a four-year period, about 99 percent of those who used Emergency Medicaid were determined to be illegal immigrants.

    Some believe that the program prompts foreign nationals to illegally cross the US border to receive free treatment – and to give birth at US hospitals, helping their children to become American citizens. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that tens of thousands of American babies are born to illegal immigrants each year, which also helps their mothers more easily become citizens themselves.

    Critics of the program argue that the $2 billion annual spending on healthcare mostly delivered to illegal immigrants could be saved or reduced by preventing illegal immigration in the first place and tightening US borders. But it’s a situation that’s tough for every side: those supporting the healthcare option for illegal immigrants argue that the patients are unable to receive long-term care or prenatal care after delivering a baby.

    “It’s a lose, lose, lose,” Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy lawyer at the National Immigration Law Center, told Kaiser News.

    And since emergency rooms are not allowed to turn away patients with serious conditions or ask about their legal status, it’s a problem that won’t easily be solved – or often acknowledged by the administration that promises not to spend money treating illegal immigrants.

    More than 100,000 people receive the Emergency Medicaid treatment annually. About half of the $2 billion budget goes to California – the state with the largest estimated number of illegal immigrants. Texas, New York, Illinois, and Florida – states that are within the top five most populated by illegal immigrants – also receive a large chunk of the budget.

    While lawmakers promised that the Affordable Care Act would not provide healthcare to illegal immigrants, it did not address existing legislation that already does so for as many as 100,000 patients a year.

    Report: $2bln Medicaid program mostly helps illegal immigrants — RT
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    working4change
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  3. #3
    Senior Member southBronx's Avatar
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    this is all obama doing help his friend & the hell with USA & some of you Vote for him to bad
    the USA has to pay for this it not right gov wake the hell up open your eyes
    No amnesty or dream act

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Perhaps the illegals should use the VA hospital system and veterans should receive free treatment at civilian medical emergency rooms and hospitals. Illegals receive medical care that exceeds the requirement of emergency care. They receive dialysis, prenatal and cancer treatments.

    VA scheduler in Texas claims waits for appointments were covered up


    By Drew Griffin, Scott Bronstein and Greg Botelho, CNN
    updated 6:14 AM EDT, Fri May 9, 2014

    Source: CNN

    COMPLETE VIDEO REPORT AND INTERVIEW AT LINK

    San Antonio (CNN) -- Clerks scheduling medical appointments for veterans were "cooking the books" at their bosses' behest to hide the fact some had to wait weeks, if not months, for appointments, a VA scheduler in San Antonio said Thursday.
    The Office of Inspector General confirms to CNN that it has staff investigators on the ground in San Antonio looking into the allegations.

    The allegations surrounding this Texas VA hospital comes as the federal department fends off claims of potentially deadly delays at other facilities, including claims of a secret wait list in Phoenix that was first reported by CNN.

    Phoenix VA officials deny secret wait list; doctors say they're lying

    The VA's official policy is that all patients should be able to see a doctor, dentist or some other medical professional within 14 days of their requested/preferred date. Any wait longer than two weeks is supposed to documented.

    Yet Brian Turner, a Veterans Affairs scheduling clerk based in San Antonio, said Thursday that some who called to make appointments at his facility did end up waiting longer, yet such delays were never reported.

    Veterans affairs chief subpoenaed


    Shinseki: We will end the backlog in 2015


    American Legion: Shinseki should resign


    For example, he said, they might be told the next available appointment wasn't for several months. It would be scheduled for then, but marked in official files as if the patient had put off their appointment until then by choice.

    "What we've been instructed was that -- they are not saying fudged, there is no secret wait list -- but what they've done is come out and just say 'zero out that date,' " Turner said. The "zero," in this case, suggests the patient didn't have to wait at all.

    "It could be three months and look like no days (wait)," he added. "It looked like they had scheduled the appointment and got exactly what they wanted."

    The Veterans Affairs public affairs office said that Turner's allegation has been looked into, without any finding of wrongdoing.
    "Based on our internal fact-finding conducted April 25-28, we found the claims by this employee were not substantiated," the VA statement said. However, the Office of Inspector General says it is conducting its own investigation. Turner tells CNN he has already been interviewed by OIG staff.

    The claim comes amid strong public pressure on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its leader, Eric Shinseki, after CNN reporting unveiled e-mails that allegedly discussed the destruction of a secret list of veterans waiting for care at a Phoenix VA hospital.

    Shinseki has ordered a "face-to-face audit" at VA clinics, a department spokesman said on Thursday. Earlier the same day, a House committee voted to subpoena Shinseki in the wake of such accusations that his department is responsible for deadly delays in health care.

    Shinseki orders 'face-to-face audit' at clinics

    Turner told CNN that he's become a witness in an investigation by the VA inspector general's office focusing on delayed care, alleged falsification of records and possible medical harm to veterans at the San Antonio facility. Turner, a former Army soldier himself who still works at the VA, said he has asked to be protected under federal whistle-blower laws.

    As to the VA's earlier fact-finding efforts, Turner said that no one asked him about his allegations. In fact, he said, when he began expressing his concerns to other staff members, he was called in and told not to e-mail another person.

    "They shut me up the very next day," Turner said.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/us/va-san-antonio-allegation/

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