Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate On Aug 15, 9:55*am, Sordo*<sordo*@Painful-Truth.net> wrote:
> Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
>
> In California, Funding Is at Stake for a Clinic That Treats Patients No
> Matter Their Status; An Issue 'No One Wants to Touch'
>
> By MIRIAM JORDAN
>
> VALLEJO, Calif. -- A health clinic in this blue-collar city north of
> Oakland, partly funded by the county, is saving local hospitals
> thousands of dollars in emergency-room visits by treating uninsured
> patients who suffer only non-urgent ailments.
>
> A watchdog group is now calling on county officials to cut funding for
> clinic patients who can't prove they are in the U.S. legally, a debate
> certain to surface in the national health-care overhaul.
>
> With congressional proposals already stirring raw emotions, few
> supporters are eager to add the incendiary issue of illegal immigration.
> A provision in the House's health-care-overhaul bill rules out federal
> funding for illegal immigrants.
>
> But in many ways, illegal immigration is at the nexus of two key health
> issues: the uninsured and ballooning costs.
>
> Roughly half of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. don't have
> health insurance, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan
> research group. Like others who can't afford medical care, illegal
> immigrants tend to flock to hospital emergency rooms, which, under a
> 1986 law, can't turn people away, even if they can't pay. Emergency-room
> visits, where treatment costs are much higher than in clinics, jumped
> 32% nationally between 1996 and 2006, the latest data available.
>
> The role illegal immigrants play in U.S. health-care costs is "one hot
> button that no one wants to touch," says Stephen Zuckerman, an economist
> at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
>
> Sutter Solano Medical Center Chief Executive Terry Glubka wasn't looking
> to enter the immigration debate when she started lobbying for a clinic
> in 2006. She was trying to balance her hospital's budget. Between 2000
> and 2006, Solano County saw a 13.1% increase in total emergency-room
> visits, more than twice the state average. Nearly 80% of the visits
> weren't urgent.
>
> During 2006, the hospital had to write off $12 million in "charity care"
> -- or services provided to low-income patients who couldn't pay their
> bills. The charity helped create a $4 million budget shortfall that
> year.
>
> "They were getting the most-expensive care for what should be treated in
> a primary-care facility," Ms. Glubka says.
>
> She began shopping the idea of a clinic for low-income residents. Sutter
> and another nearby hospital, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, each
> committed $100,000 annually over three years. Solano County's board of
> supervisors voted 5-0 in 2008 to contribute $250,000.
>
> Ms. Glubka enlisted the help of La Clínica de La Raza Inc., a network of
> 27 nonprofit community clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area. The clinic
> opened last November, down the street from Sutter hospital.
>
> Sutter hospital's emergency-room staff now refer about 60 patients a
> month to La Clínica. With a basic examination at Sutter hospital costing
> about $500 -- and often going unpaid by poor patients -- that is the
> equivalent of $30,000 in routine emergency-visit charges that would
> otherwise be written off as charity.
>
> La Clínica charges $85.50 per consultation; low-income patients are
> charged less.
>
> "If we didn't have La Clínica, we'd be in much worse shape," says Angie
> Hammons, Sutter's emergency-room manager.
>
> One of the clinic's new patients is Evelia Lopez, 51, who had been
> visiting the emergency room to treat chronic back pain after a slip at
> work. About two-fifths of the clinic's patients are Hispanic, while
> about a quarter of the patients are African-American; one-fifth are
> white.
>
> Along with their medical history, new patients are asked their income to
> determine what pay on a sliding fee scale.
>
> As in emergency rooms, patients aren't asked about their immigration
> status.
>
> Costs at such primary-care centers are probably 10% to 15% the cost of
> treatment in a hospital emergency room, says Paul Mango, head of the
> health-care practice at McKinsey & Co.
>
> Residents have since complained to a 19-member county-appointed watchdog
> group about taxpayer money La Clínica going to health care for people
> living in the U.S. illegally. Neither the clinic nor the Sutter
> emergency room ask people their immigration status.
>
> "All we can ask them is their name, date of birth and chief complaint,"
> says Ms. Hammons, the Sutter emergency-department manager. "Heavens, we
> don't deny anybody treatment. You are required to see anyone who shows
> up at the emergency department."
>
> Mike Reagan, a Solano County supervisor who originally voted for the
> clinic's funding, now says the facility should erect a "firewall" to
> prevent taxpayer money from going to illegal immigrants. "I'm not in
> favor of rewarding illegal behavior in any form," he says.
>
> The report from the watchdog, released three weeks ago, recommends that
> Solano County require that public contributions to the clinic "be
> limited to serving only Solano County residents who have proof of
> citizenship or legal residency."
>
> The county's board of supervisors and health director have 90 days to
> respond. County health director Patrick Duterte says he is bent on
> keeping the clinic open.
>
> "My position is that to have a healthy community we can't have a subset
> of people who don't have access to health care," says Mr. Duterte. "It's
> bad public-health policy." Health experts say that giving undocumented
> immigrants medical care can prevent the spread of illnesses.
>
> Meantime, the clinic has extended its hours to keep pace with swelling
> demand. "We're swamped," says Monique Sims, the clinic's manager.
>
> Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jor...@wsj.com
> Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4
>
> Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company
Not one penny for illegal alien heath care. Email your people in
Congress:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
rick
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate Rick, what's your rationale?
I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
decided to try to make a better living?
> Not one penny for illegal alien heath care. Email your people in
> Congress.
> rick
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate Thank you.
"nmguy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> Rick, what's your rationale?
>
> I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
> adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
> children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
> decided to try to make a better living?
>
>
>
>> Not one penny for illegal alien heath care. Email your people in
>> Congress.
>> rick
>
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
"nmguy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
: Rick, what's your rationale?
:
: I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
: adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
: children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
: decided to try to make a better living?
:
I go to Canada, I get no government coverage, I go to England I get no
coverage there that's if I go legally. If I enter illegally I get arrested
and sent home.
I or my kids travel to EU or most anywhere else in the world my US insurance
may or may not cover them when out of the country. I go out of the country
I buy a rider or go bear.
Curious, just what medical care do these farm workers get in their home
country?
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
"NotMe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:h67l6r$2ge$[email protected]..
>
> "nmguy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
> : Rick, what's your rationale?
> :
> : I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
> : adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
> : children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
> : decided to try to make a better living?
> :
> I go to Canada, I get no government coverage, I go to England I get no
> coverage there that's if I go legally. If I enter illegally I get
> arrested
> and sent home.
>
> I or my kids travel to EU or most anywhere else in the world my US
> insurance
> may or may not cover them when out of the country. I go out of the
> country
> I buy a rider or go bear.
>
> Curious, just what medical care do these farm workers get in their home
> country?
>
http://www.ensenadarealtors.com/info...l_services.htm
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
"Phxbrd" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
:
: "NotMe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
: news:h67l6r$2ge$[email protected]..
: >
: > "nmguy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
: > news:[email protected]..
: > : Rick, what's your rationale?
: > :
: > : I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
: > : adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
: > : children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
: > : decided to try to make a better living?
: > :
: > I go to Canada, I get no government coverage, I go to England I get no
: > coverage there that's if I go legally. If I enter illegally I get
: > arrested
: > and sent home.
: >
: > I or my kids travel to EU or most anywhere else in the world my US
: > insurance
: > may or may not cover them when out of the country. I go out of the
: > country
: > I buy a rider or go bear.
: >
: > Curious, just what medical care do these farm workers get in their home
: > country?
: >
:
: http://www.ensenadarealtors.com/info...l_services.htm
Thanks. I question the assertion cost are significantly lower due to the
lack of med mal action. I say this as in the US med mal cost are ~ 2% of
cost which is not a significant number in any under writer risk analysis.
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
"NotMe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:h67mss$cll$[email protected]..
>
> "Phxbrd" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
> :
> : "NotMe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> : news:h67l6r$2ge$[email protected]..
> : >
> : > "nmguy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> : >
> news:[email protected]..
> : > : Rick, what's your rationale?
> : > :
> : > : I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
> : > : adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
> : > : children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
> : > : decided to try to make a better living?
> : > :
> : > I go to Canada, I get no government coverage, I go to England I get no
> : > coverage there that's if I go legally. If I enter illegally I get
> : > arrested
> : > and sent home.
> : >
> : > I or my kids travel to EU or most anywhere else in the world my US
> : > insurance
> : > may or may not cover them when out of the country. I go out of the
> : > country
> : > I buy a rider or go bear.
> : >
> : > Curious, just what medical care do these farm workers get in their
> home
> : > country?
> : >
> :
> : http://www.ensenadarealtors.com/info...l_services.htm
>
> Thanks. I question the assertion cost are significantly lower due to the
> lack of med mal action. I say this as in the US med mal cost are ~ 2% of
> cost which is not a significant number in any under writer risk analysis.
>
It's also possible that Mexican doctors don't kill over 100,000 patients per
year due to carelessness, incompetence, drug influences, and/or arrogance.
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:33:43 -0700 (PDT), nmguy
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
>adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
>children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
>decided to try to make a better living?
Would you say that the children of burglars shouldn't suffer by having
their parents sent to prison just for trying to make a better living?
They should go back Mexico and try to sponge off their own government.
--
W. de N.
"And lo, she found herself within a market,
and all around her, fish were dying;
and yet their stench did live on."
-- Iphigenia in Brooklyn
Re: Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate On Aug 15, 5:33*pm, nmguy <pconle...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Rick, what's your rationale?
>
> I used to teach migrant farm workers' kids in California. They were
> adorable, no different than my own two children. Why should the
> children of Mexican parents suffer, simply because their parents
> decided to try to make a better living?
>
> > Not one penny for illegal alien heath care. Email your people in
> > Congress.
> > rick
>
>
Bring all Mexican poor family to America. Give them higher wage.
Give them healthcare benefit. You say what's wrong with that?
Can you ask does USA should take care poor Mexican Third World family?
Remember USA faces over 11trillion in debt! USA has no money.
Bring more illegal Mexicans! Destroy USA? Viva Mexico???
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