Thread: Undocumented patients jumped by more than 450 percent

"We are seeing an increase in charity care over the last few years and a large part of that is due to undocumented aliens," said PVH spokesman Gary Kimsey. "Somebody has to pay for that care, though, and so it's spread out among health insurance companies and other patients who use the system. The charity care helps people who are unable to pay for their services, but the costs come out of someone's pockets."

Immigration up 51 percent
Some say new data should be platform for responsible dialogue
BY JASON KOSENA
JasonKosena@coloradoan.com

Fort Collins and Larimer County have witnessed a large spike in the number of immigrants living here since 2000, according to census data being released today.

The number of foreign-born immigrants increased 51 percent in Fort Collins from 6,269 in 2000 to 9,466 last year. During the same time, Larimer County saw a 46 percent increase from 10,709 in 2000 to 15,656 in 2006, according to the American Community Survey, an annual report by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some community members said Tuesday they believe the new data should be a springboard to creating a conversation surrounding immigration that is responsible and not divisive.

"The data does not lie," said Rich Salas, a community leader and the assistant director for El Centro at Colorado State University. "Fort Collins and the U.S. as a nation have been growing at rapid rates ... and I really feel it is time for our nation to fix a very badly broken immigration policy and work toward comprehensive and humane immigration reform."

Phil Cafaro, a member of Northern Coloradans for Immigration Reduction, agrees that the numbers should spur a deeper look at the nation's immigration policy, though for different reasons than Salas.

"I think the (new) numbers ultimately are a negative for the community," Cafaro said. "We're importing evermore poor people who also bring an influx of unskilled labor into our economy. In return, wages are driven down because the unskilled workers create competition for unskilled laborer jobs, which hurt citizens here looking for work."

The Census Bureau doesn't ask noncitizens about immigration status, so it's not possible to determine how much of the rise in the area's immigrant population is because of people entering the country illegally. The Larimer County and Fort Collins reports also don't contain data on the ethnic and racial makeup of the immigrant population.

Data shows that immigrants are much more likely to live in poverty than the native-born population. The number of immigrants living in poverty in Fort Collins and Larimer County doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to census data.

However, immigrants still only account for about 11 percent of the impoverished population in Larimer County and 15 percent of the poverty growth since 2000. The number of native-born residents living in poverty also rose substantially between 2000 and 2006, according to census data.

That increase in low-income immigrants in Fort Collins is being seen firsthand at Poudre Valley Hospital. It is required by federal law to treat everyone who walks through the door but cannot receive state or federal reimbursements for the "charity care" PVH provides to those patients who lack documentation.

In 2002, PVH treated 322 patients who lacked documentation for a total charitable tab of $601,000. In 2006, the number of undocumented patients jumped by more than 450 percent to 1,536, totaling nearly $2.6 million, according to hospital data.

"We are seeing an increase in charity care over the last few years and a large part of that is due to undocumented aliens," said PVH spokesman Gary Kimsey. "Somebody has to pay for that care, though, and so it's spread out among health insurance companies and other patients who use the system. The charity care helps people who are unable to pay for their services, but the costs come out of someone's pockets."

The Census Bureau today is releasing the second wave of data from its 2006 American Community Survey, which provides detailed demographic information for cities and counties of more than 65,000 people. The most recent release focuses on household makeup, educational attainment and place of birth.

The first wave of data, released Aug. 28, focused on income and poverty. One final data release is planned later this month.

The ACS results are based on surveys of randomly selected households across the country. In Larimer County, 1,740 households with more than 4,000 people participated in the survey. By comparison, most national surveys for political polling companies are based on about 1,000 completed questionnaires.

Local officials said the new numbers are surprising and warrant a larger community conversation about what, if anything, can be done to better handle the rapid immigrant increase and demographic shifts in Fort Collins.

"The first thing we have to do is understand the problem better and the new numbers and the data the Coloradoan has presented in recent weeks and (today) is the first step to that," said Mayor Doug Hutchinson, who added great cities are "inclusionary" but careful in their approach. "We need to look at the role of city government in this issue and look at what action City Council can possibly take to deal with it."

The new data also shows an 89 percent increase in the number of Larimer County residents who don't speak English "very well," rising from 4,775 in 2000 to 9,041 in 2006.

Although Thompson Valley Schools and the Estes Park School District both witnessed increases in their English Language Learner student populations during the same timeframe, Poudre School District in Fort Collins saw a 28 percent decrease in its number of ELL students from 2,709 in 2000 to 1,960 last year, according to Colorado Department of Education records.

PSD officials did not return phone calls Tuesday for comment.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 20323/1002

Originally Posted by controlledImmigration

"We are seeing an increase in charity care over the last few years and a large part of that is due to undocumented aliens," said PVH spokesman Gary Kimsey. "Somebody has to pay for that care, though, and so it's spread out among health insurance companies and other patients who use the system. The charity care helps people who are unable to pay for their services, but the costs come out of someone's pockets."

Yes it is coming out of all of OUR pockets.

I swear we need to man these hospital entrances with good patriotic Americans and stop EVERYONE going in an ask them for proof of citizenship, if they don't have it, they don't get in.