Thread: Illegal Immigrants Overrun Arizona's Emergency Rooms

Illegal Immigrants Overrun Arizona's Emergency Rooms
Written by Daniel Sayani
Thursday, 24 February 2011 15:18


One of the most significant issues to arise in the immigration debate is the question of illegal immigrants utilizing taxpayer-funded social and human services that they are not legally entitled to, and that they do not contribute to, as illegal immigrants do not pay taxes that are used to finance such programs.

The state of Arizona, known for taking a tough stance in favor of the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution in its legislation that seeks to defend its borders from the constant onslaught of illegal immigrants who violate its laws by illicitly entering the state of Arizona, has once again demonstrated to be taking effective, common-sense measures towards remedying the enormous legal and fiscal challenges wrought by unrestrained illegal immigration.

As part of a slew of legislative measures introduced this week in the Arizona State Legislature — including SB 1611, that protects Arizona’s public education system by keeping out illegal alien students —Arizona is also protecting the solvency and integrity of its healthcare system. Like education, health care is a government service that has been hit hard by illegal immigration; states such as Arizona and California can no longer afford to educate and provide unlimited medical treatment for illegal immigrants, who do not financially contribute to these government services. Both Arizona and California have incurred enormous budget deficits as a result of unabashed illegal immigration, and the associated drain on governmental agencies, schools, and hospitals.

In response to these economic challenges and the continued violation of immigration laws, Arizonan state legislators have introduced legislation that would curb illegal immigrants’ unlawful and unsustainable use of hospitals and emergency rooms as sources of free health care and medical treatment, a national epidemic that has resulted in the closure of numerous hospitals and the near-bankruptcy of several state-run health insurance programs. These activities have resulted in a lack of healthcare for legal, taxpaying citizens in need of medical treatment, as well as longer delays, subpar quality of medical services and treatments, and reduced access to critical programs and services. The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) issued a research report exploring the full scope of this crisis plaguing the American healthcare delivery system:

'Immigrants are often uninsured and underinsured. Forty-three percent of noncitizens under 65 have no health insurance. That means there are 9.4 million uninsured immigrants, a majority of whom in the country illegally, who constitute 15 percent of the total uninsured in the nation in the mid-1990s. The cost of the medical care of these uninsured immigrants is passed onto the taxpayer, and strains the financial stability of the health care community.
Another problem is immigrants’ use of hospital and emergency services rather than preventative medical care. For example, utilization rate of hospitals and clinics by illegal aliens (29 percent) is more than twice the rate of the overall U.S. population (11 percent).
As a result, the costs of medical care for immigrants are staggering. The estimated cost of unreimbursed medical care in 2004 in California was about $1.4 billion per year. In Texas, the estimated cost was about $ 8.5 billion, and in Arizona the comparable estimate was $4 billion per year.'

The problem is succinctly described by the following authorities on the subject:

“What is unseen is their [illegal aliens’] free medical care that has degraded and closed some of America’s finest emergency medical facilities, and caused hospital bankruptcies: 84 California hospitals are closing their doors,â€

I THINK ARIZONA HAS A RIGHT TO DO THIS BECAUSE, ILLEGALS GO TO THE ER FOR THE MOST TRIVIAL THINGS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE SEEN ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS. THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG FOR ALLOWING THEM TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEY DON'T WANT AMERICANS DOING THIS SO WHY SHOULD ILLEGALS BE ABLE TO DO IT. WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS SAYING TO US IS, WE DO NOT MATTER AT ALL AND, ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE THE CHOSEN ONES IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY SHOULDN'T BE RECEIVING MEDICADE IN THE FIRST PLACE

Every state needs to cut off ALL free medical to anyone who cannot provide legal documentation. That includes ER and certainly maternity care. Any clinic that treats illegals needs to have all state and federal funding cut off also. Hospitals and clinics need to turn in any person suspected of being illegal. E-Verify could be a standard to do the check via computer.

44 percent of those illegal immigrants interviewed by Chan at a San Diego emergency room answered that even if other healthcare services were available, only the emergency room was acceptable to them

Only the ER because they know they can get away with not having to pay! mod edit

Originally Posted by LadyStClaire

I THINK ARIZONA HAS A RIGHT TO DO THIS BECAUSE, ILLEGALS GO TO THE ER FOR THE MOST TRIVIAL THINGS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE SEEN ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS. THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG FOR ALLOWING THEM TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEY DON'T WANT AMERICANS DOING THIS SO WHY SHOULD ILLEGALS BE ABLE TO DO IT. WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS SAYING TO US IS, WE DO NOT MATTER AT ALL AND, ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE THE CHOSEN ONES IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY SHOULDN'T BE RECEIVING MEDICADE IN THE FIRST PLACE

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT US??????????
WE ALL SHARE THE SAME PASSION AS YOU DO BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE USE NORMAL FONTS LIKE THE REST OF US! THE CAPS, BOLD AND ITALIC MAKES ME WANT TO QUIT THIS SITE BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU SEEM LIKE AN INSANE IRRATIONAL RADICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


thank you. i needed to get that off my chest.

This will get interesting. One problem I anticipate is fraudulent use of SSNs. Our local hospital has over 100 people using the same SSN.

Lady St Clair is not shouting, thats just the way she talks. Lighten up.

It way past time to stop treating people without emergencies for free in the ER. My husband had open heart surgery and then had a complication on a Sunday afternoon, so of course we could only go to the ER and could not wait. We also had to go to the same hospital that performed the surgery.

We walked in right behind a pregnant illegal. She signed in and then I signed in my husband before they had a chance to remove her sign in (they do it individually now due to patient confidentiality.

Know what her reason for visiting an ER on a Sunday afternoon - she wrote down it was for a check up!! Of course, it was misspelled. Baby daddy probably did not want to take off from work at his cash paying job to take her during the week.

I was so mad that I had a difficult time focusing on my husband and his real problems, that we were actually paying for. He did get admitted so our ER fee was covered by insurance. BTW, he is fine now, had a re-build with new valve, by pass and ablation.

Originally Posted by HippieChick

Originally Posted by LadyStClaire

I THINK ARIZONA HAS A RIGHT TO DO THIS BECAUSE, ILLEGALS GO TO THE ER FOR THE MOST TRIVIAL THINGS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE SEEN ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS. THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG FOR ALLOWING THEM TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEY DON'T WANT AMERICANS DOING THIS SO WHY SHOULD ILLEGALS BE ABLE TO DO IT. WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS SAYING TO US IS, WE DO NOT MATTER AT ALL AND, ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE THE CHOSEN ONES IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY SHOULDN'T BE RECEIVING MEDICADE IN THE FIRST PLACE

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT US??????????
WE ALL SHARE THE SAME PASSION AS YOU DO BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE USE NORMAL FONTS LIKE THE REST OF US! THE CAPS, BOLD AND ITALIC MAKES ME WANT TO QUIT THIS SITE BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU SEEM LIKE AN INSANE IRRATIONAL RADICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


thank you. i needed to get that off my chest.

You want to quit this site because of someones writing style??? Give me a f-ing break. If you don't like her writing style, don't read her posts!! I personally don't have a problem with her writing style and love what she has to say. Grow up!!

Thanks, I needed to get that off MY chest

Originally Posted by OneNationUnderGod

Originally Posted by HippieChick

Originally Posted by LadyStClaire

I THINK ARIZONA HAS A RIGHT TO DO THIS BECAUSE, ILLEGALS GO TO THE ER FOR THE MOST TRIVIAL THINGS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE SEEN ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS. THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG FOR ALLOWING THEM TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEY DON'T WANT AMERICANS DOING THIS SO WHY SHOULD ILLEGALS BE ABLE TO DO IT. WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS SAYING TO US IS, WE DO NOT MATTER AT ALL AND, ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE THE CHOSEN ONES IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY SHOULDN'T BE RECEIVING MEDICADE IN THE FIRST PLACE

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT US??????????
WE ALL SHARE THE SAME PASSION AS YOU DO BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE USE NORMAL FONTS LIKE THE REST OF US! THE CAPS, BOLD AND ITALIC MAKES ME WANT TO QUIT THIS SITE BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU SEEM LIKE AN INSANE IRRATIONAL RADICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


thank you. i needed to get that off my chest.

You want to quit this site because of someones writing style??? Give me a f-ing break. If you don't like her writing style, don't read her posts!! I personally don't have a problem with her writing style and love what she has to say. Grow up!!

Thanks, I needed to get that off MY chest

Ditto that, Lady StClair always knows whats up!