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Paying The Price For Illegal Care
IBD Editorials ^ | August 21, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

Posted on 08/21/2009 6:14:00 PM PDT by Kaslin

Health Care: Democrats are right that uncompensated emergency care for the uninsured is driving up costs. What they don't say is it's illegal immigrants who are bankrupting ERs, and the federal government is encouraging them.


IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure
Last decade, the Clinton administration added teeth to a little-known Health and Human Services Department regulation mandating that hospitals provide emergency treatment even to illegals.

Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, hospitals can't even ask for a patient's immigration status or ability to pay prior to delivering treatment. They also can't keep such uninsured patients waiting, even if their problem isn't an emergency. Nor can they discharge them until they're fully stabilized and have safe transportation.

More, hospitals must post EMTALA signs in Spanish and English. The law isn't limited to ERs. Hospitals must accept illegals at any facility on campus — including outpatient clinics and doctor's offices — located within 250 yards of the main buildings.

Hospitals end up treating uninsured illegals for the sniffles and other nonurgent care, and pass that exorbitant cost on to the insured, the Government Accountability Office has found. Resulting overcrowding leads to delays in "care for patients with true emergency needs."

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bhohealthcare; bhoillegals; illegals; pricetag

1 posted on 08/21/2009 6:14:00 PM PDT by Kaslin
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: bareford101; BerniesFriend; blaveda; Bookwoman; Celeste732; dsc; FrdmLvr; FreedomPoster; ...

3 posted on 08/21/2009 6:17:53 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for 0bama: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

You don’t have to be Fellini to figure that one out.


4 posted on 08/21/2009 6:19:38 PM PDT by dsc (The "t" in the word "often" is silent.)
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To: Kaslin

You don’t have to be Fellini to figure that one out.


5 posted on 08/21/2009 6:19:39 PM PDT by dsc (The "t" in the word "often" is silent.)
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To: Kaslin
"Health Care: Democrats are right that uncompensated emergency care for the uninsured is driving up costs. What they don't say is it's illegal immigrants who are bankrupting ERs, and the federal government is encouraging them..."

AND they will continue to show up at ERs in the same way, paying nothing, and the rest of us will pay for it in the new and improved way. IE We will pay MORE.

6 posted on 08/21/2009 6:24:42 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Kaslin
At a minimum, the government could impose a fee on remittances to Mexico, and use the revenues to offset costs that border hospitals incur for the care of illegal immigrants.

Need to make it a 50% tax on those remittances to any country outside the US

7 posted on 08/21/2009 6:27:27 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats: the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy and Sedition)
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To: Anti-Bubba182

I am disgusted.


8 posted on 08/21/2009 6:34:00 PM PDT by bitt (mobster.)
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To: Kaslin

I believe in compassionate emergency care when needed.....but these folks glut ER’s for head colds and sprained ankles. If it’s not life-threatening.....it’s not an emergency, IMHO.


9 posted on 08/21/2009 7:06:46 PM PDT by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: Kaslin

Well, after all, we all know that before you can make strides in curing a problem, one must create the problem!

As far as I’m concerned, I am very happy with my health care just as it is. It is reasonable, It is available and it is the best available anywhere on the planet.

No free health care, SSI or food stamps for illegal aliens (one of the ways they created a problem to begin with!) Eliminating the special privileges to pharmeceuticals to repay for campaign financing would be another step in the right direction. Lobbying, Obama promised to stop during his campaign, has only grown exponentially since his inauguration. Abd buddies are being paid back left and right.

And, as Congressman Duncan L Hunter proposed when he was running for the highest office in the land, making insurance available across state lines would stimulate competition, which is an absolutely necessary element in a healthy economic system.

There is no question in my mind that there sould be no crisis in health care if the government had not caused one.


10 posted on 08/21/2009 7:08:32 PM PDT by Paperdoll (DL Hunter/S Palin or S Palin/DL Hunter 2012)
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To: long hard slogger; FormerACLUmember; Harrius Magnus; hocndoc; parousia; Hydroshock; skippermd; ...


Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

**This is a high volume ping list! (sign of the times)**


11 posted on 08/21/2009 7:23:56 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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To: Kaslin

It should be mandatory that they be deported after treatment.


12 posted on 08/21/2009 8:01:07 PM PDT by sportutegrl (If liberals could do math, they would be conservatives.)
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To: Kaslin

Actually, I don’t hear hospitals complain about illegals that much.

EMTALA overall seems like mandating humane behavior but it exists no where else in the world, even with socialized care.

Most folks say they will let you die, unless you produce your gov. care card.


13 posted on 08/21/2009 8:26:20 PM PDT by Wiseghy ("How's that 'hopey, changy' thing work'in out fer ya?")
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To: Wiseghy
Actually, I don’t hear hospitals complain about illegals that much.

****

Maybe they silently close Emergency rooms, or go out of business completely?

- from this article:

"Many eat losses and eventually go out of business like they're doing in droves in California, which has seen 85 hospital closures in the last decade. An additional 55 facilities have shut down ERs. The state ranks last in the country in access to emergency care and last in ERs per capita, making it woefully unprepared to respond to a major earthquake or terror attack."

14 posted on 08/22/2009 7:36:01 AM PDT by maica (Politics is not about facts. it is about what politicians can get people to believe. - Thomas Sowell)
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To: dsc

but a liberal can’t


15 posted on 08/22/2009 11:11:28 AM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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To: Munz

“but a liberal can’t”

Well, you do have to be at least as smart as Forrest Gump.


16 posted on 08/22/2009 3:16:29 PM PDT by dsc (The "t" in the word "often" is silent.)
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