Thread: Arizona hospital lures wealthy Mexican moms-to-be

Arizona hospital lures wealthy Mexican moms-to-be
Submitted by SHNS on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 13:46.

* By MARIANA ALVARADO, Arizona Daily Star
* national

A Tucson hospital's health-care package promises affluent Mexican women the chance to have their babies in posh surroundings with access to the latest medical equipment.

But the marketing materials leave out a key draw in the arrangement: U.S. citizenship for the newborn.

Tucson Medical Center's "birth package" gives an official nod to a generations-old practice of wealthy Mexican women coming to U.S. hospitals to give birth. Mexican families do the same thing at all local hospitals, but the Tucson hospital is the only one actively recruiting their business.

The practice is legal, but offensive to some advocates of tougher U.S. immigration standards.

"What it really amounts to," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, "is buying U.S. citizenship."

"This is different from any other kind of medical treatment," said Krikorian, whose Washington, D.C.-based think tank studies the impact of immigration on the United States. "If you come for cancer treatment ... there's no consequence for the United States. You pay your money, you go home."

The Mexican consul general in Tucson said parents naturally want to give their children every advantage and securing U.S. citizenship is something a small percentage of Mexican families can afford.

"This is not a new phenomena," said Juan Manuel Calderón Jaimes, who says he's seen the practice for almost 30 years. "Many families of means in Sonora send their wives here to give birth because they have the resources to pay for the services."

Expectant mothers can either schedule a Caesarean section or arrive a few weeks before their due dates to give birth at TMC. It is one of 13 packages aimed at Mexican families, some of which include a stay at a local resort and shopping excursion.

TMC's maternity package costs $2,300 for a vaginal birth with a two-day stay and $4,600 for a Caesarean section and a four-day stay, assuming no complications. That includes exams for the newborn and a massage for the new mother. There is a $500 surcharge per additional child.

"These are families with a lot of money, and some (women) arrive on private jets and are picked up by an ambulance and brought here," said Shawn Page, TMC's administrator of international services and relations. "These are families with a lot of clout."

U.S. citizenship for their children brings even more clout: the opportunity -- and right -- to live, work and study in the United States. Because their parents do not earn the same right, many children of such arrangements grow up in Mexico and come here as adults for school and work. A child of Mexican parents born at TMC would have dual nationality.

Aside from the maternity package, TMC offers 12 packages for international patients, including bone density tests, mammograms and urology procedures.

Earlier this month, TMC launched the Mujer Sana (Healthy Woman) Health Tour Package, targeted to women 50 or older. It includes six exams at the hospital and three days and two nights at a Tucson-area resort and a shopping spree.

The hospital partnered with the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the program is marketed through the visitors bureau in Hermosillo, Sonora.

"TMC has generated a package dedicated exclusively to women, something Mexico hasn't done," said Miguel Angel Partida RuÃ*z, director of the bureau's Sonora office.

He said the patients can bring their families and turn the trip into a mini-vacation.

Although a fixed price for the TMC package has not been set, the visitors bureau estimates the cost will be between $500 and $600, which includes the $150 exams at TMC.

Aside from treating international patients and the local Spanish-speaking community, Page said, the goal of TMC's international program is to reach out to U.S. citizens living in Canada or Mexico to come to Tucson for medical treatment. Health niches on both sides

E-mail reporter Mariana Alvarado at malvarado(at)azstarnet.com.

Congress wake up, no to tourism citizenship. Leave it to the insurance businesses and doctors the country will be a third world sooner than later with the help of the Federal Government, Congress, and President Obama.

See, this is just another reason why the policy of granting automatic birthright citizenship to foreign nationals is the stupidest thing our government has ever done and citizens should stand up and oppose it now!