Clinic Discontinues Services To Illegal Aliens
By Greg L | 20 June 2008 | Illegal Aliens, Virginia Politics | 32 Comments

Hburgnews.com is reporting that the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic has announced that it wil cease providing medical services to illegal aliens, something that health clinics in Northern Virginia refuse to do. The clinic, which is 95% taxpayer supported, had up until recently using those taxpayer dollars to provide healthcare services to illegal aliens, which account for an estimated 10% of their patient population according to clinic staff. This should spark some discussions within other publicly-supported health clinics in the Commonwealth about the advisability of providing support to illegal aliens, a practice which may violate state and federal law.

Executive Director Rich Sider says that the board decided to limit participation in the free clinic based on feedback from some volunteers and other medical providers who were concerned about the amount of resources going to people who aren’t here legally. Sider also says that drug companies which donate pharmaceuticals require a Social Security number from recipients. Sider says they do not have resources to determine whether documents presented are valid or not, but that new patients without documentation will not receive services after their initial eligibility screening.
Will taxpayer-supported health clinics in Northern Virginia follow suit? That’s not very likely, at least until the rationale behind this decision in Harrisonburg is more fully presented. When that happens, it would provide a great opportunity for citizens to bring this issue to the attention of their local elected officials and start asking for some changes to be made. There’s no sane or legal reason why taxpayers should be compelled to provide funding used to support the unlawful presence of illegal aliens in Virginia.

UPDATE: Apparently part of the reason this decision was made was that the clinic did not have adequate resources to meet community demand, so while illegal aliens were obtaining taxpayer-subsidized medical care, American citizens were on a waiting list for the same services.
http://www.bvbl.net/index.php/2008/06/2 ... #more-2500