Thread: "Healthcare for (illegal) immigrants focus of meeting&q

GAWD, THE FOLLOWING JUST BURNS ME UP!


http://delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1006/NEWS

Health care for immigrants focus of meeting
Many unaware of services they can receive

By HIRAN RATNAYAKE
The News Journal

05/10/2006
Newark resident Debbie Laskey said she was just leaving her kidney dialysis at a nearby center when she saw a Hispanic man pacing in the waiting room.

He had a desperate look on his face.

In Spanish, he told Laskey that his wife needed dialysis treatments but she was rejected at a hospital emergency room. The man was a citizen but his wife was here illegally.

"He was afraid she was going to die that day," said Laskey, who is bilingual. "He kept saying she was very sick."

Laskey and a nurse eventually directed the man to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital on Friday night.

"That's the last I heard about it," Laskey said. "But I can't imagine being in a new country, not speaking the language and having a terminal illness and not knowing where to go for help."

Obtaining care

The Conference on the Immigrant and Health Care on Thursday will focus on the experience of immigrants trying to get health care in Delaware. Immigrants will relate their difficulties trying to get health services. There will be a number of presentations, including:

• How immigrants can qualify for Medicaid.

• How the uninsured immigrant can get medical care.

• How immigrants can negotiate the cost of health services.

• How immigrants can apply for workers compensation and disability insurance.

"There's a special dimension to immigrants' problems," said Madeline Welch, a Wilmington immigration lawyer and founder of Immigrants Council of Delaware. "They have special needs, a difficulty explaining themselves and their cultural experience in health care is different."

Afraid to seek help

For a fear of being reported to immigration officials, many illegal immigrants won't attempt to qualify their U.S.-born children for Medicaid even though they're eligible and may need it.

"The parents have not committed a crime by being here undocumented," Welch said. "The general public does such a good job of saying immigrants don't qualify for anything that they're afraid to seek help when they can get it from certain sources."

Some immigrants find out about health care from their English as a second language teachers.

"They want to know how to read a prescription and understand the directions on a medical brochure," said Carmen Knox, executive director of Literacy Volunteers of America at the Wilmington Library.

Contact Hiran Ratnayake at 324-2547 or hratnayake@delawareonline.com.

This is really sad, someone here illegally and they are getting benefits??

I wish someone would tell me what programs I can qualify for in Georgia. I am lower income, I do own a car,and a small condo and am 48 and broke. I don't have any anchor babies or children.

Do I have to get fake papers and ID and change my last name to Garcia?

These people know more about our welfare state than I do, and I'm a
native-born American. The figures given by the government of 11-12 million illegals here, bull. I swear there are that many here in CA alone.
There is no place where I go that I don't see them getting something for nothing. The medical benefits they get here are just unbelievable. Every emergency room is filled with them. They really know how to play the system. Then we have the govenment employees who tell them how to get even more!!

I'm getting ready to blow!

I wish someone would tell me what programs I can qualify for in Georgia. I am lower income, I do own a car,and a small condo and am 48 and broke. I don't have any anchor babies or children.

It is so outrageous, isn't it? A single illegal alien, working off the books (or using a fake name/ss) earning $12,480 a year (6.00 an hour) is able to receive free health. On the other hand, and uninsured single American citizen, residing in Delaware, making a penny more than $9800.00 is not eligible for ANY type of medical assistance. In other words, if the latter makes $9810.00 a year (and who could possibly live on that?) they should be prepared to forfeit everything they own, including their home, should they become seriously ill.

Ya....they got the system down and people to actually help them, and personally guide them along the way. It really angers me because when I needed assistance I couldn't get a thing.

I guess you have to pretend you have amnesia, and tell them you dont understand ANY language, muss yourself up, and dont wear any shoes. Then walk in there like you own the place and take a seat and just stare ahead with a despirate look on your face. Someone should be right with you in a minute.

Totally unbelievable! They should take the increased costs of these programs by illegal immigrants from the pockets of these "do gooders". What right do citizens of foreign countries have to medicade, workers comp, etc???
My father gets about $1000/month on S.S. and qualifies for no assistance. I'm going to teach him to say "no comprendo" when he goes for medical care. They'll roll out the red carpet and give him whatever he wants.

It's a sad reality. My wife check into a California hospital and had to provide SS#, insurance, and sign for bill responsibility & pay deductible. Next to her an illegal signed in with interpreter help. No questions. Free treatment. They (illegals) know just what to say to get this treatment and or not timid to ask. My wife asked the admitting nurse and she said they cannot ask their citizenship and must treat or lose federal funding at certain hospitals. Millions of dollars federal funding are alloted to border states hospital for non-paying (illegal) patients.

Article just the other day in Arizona paper said hospital are losing millions this year for treating illegals that get in car accidents running from border patrol. Great system.

Not that it matters but I worked in Mexico. If an American goes into Mexican hospital (bad idea) they keep you until the bill is paid...or send you to jail.