Posted on 04/23/2013 3:15:35 AM PDT by markomalley
Days after they were badly hurt in a car accident, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana lay unconscious in an Iowa hospital while the American health care system weighed what to do with the two immigrants from Mexico.
The men had health insurance from jobs at one of the nation's largest pork producers. But neither had legal permission to live in the U.S., nor was it clear whether their insurance would pay for the long-term rehabilitation they needed.
So Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines took matters into its own hands: After consulting with the patients' families, it quietly loaded the two comatose men onto a private jet that flew them back to Mexico, effectively deporting them without consulting any court or federal agency.
When the men awoke, they were more than 1,800 miles away in a hospital in Veracruz, on the Mexican Gulf Coast.
Hundreds of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have taken similar journeys through a little-known removal system run not by the federal government trying to enforce laws but by hospitals seeking to curb high costs. A recent report compiled by immigrant advocacy groups made a rare attempt to determine how many people are sent home, concluding that at least 600 immigrants were removed over a five-year period, though there were likely many more.
In interviews with immigrants, their families, attorneys and advocates, The Associated Press reviewed the obscure process known formally as "medical repatriation," which allows hospitals to put patients on chartered international flights, often while they are still unconscious. Hospitals typically pay for the flights.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
First, they weren’t “immigrants.” The were illegal aliens.
Regardless, I’m glad to see they sent them back to where they belong.
So what is the problem?
bump
No problem. I think this could make a great new service. Possible opportunity for a new line of work for government contractors.
A hospital in St. Pete was spending the largest portion of its budget keeping a brain dead illegal from Honduras alive. They couldn’t get rid if him as his family fought them in the court. They spent millions. I moved before it ended. But my guess is he’s still there or he finally died.
God forbid there’s ever a case of mistaken identity and an American wakes up in a Mexican hospital.
Dubious at best! I doubt whether the company's medical insurance covers illegal immigrants.
This is a huge problem for US hospitals. Millions of illegals work in this country on fake IDs. When they get sick, physicians and hospitals have no way to collect payment.
The son was deaf and mute and could only communicate using an unofficial sign language that he and his father had developed between each other. He developed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and his platelet counts were extremely low, but someone in our emergency department ignored the risk and placed a central line (subclavian vein catheter) when he presented so that they could give him blood products. I was just a junior faculty member at the time and became involved in his case. All of us involved in his care were told, after about a day, that he had no insurance and couldn't receive ongoing treatment in the hospital after stabilization.
So we gave him a ton of platelets so that we could safely remove his central line, and arranged to have appropriate medications sent to a private American physician on the border with Mexico who had volunteered to treat him for free. The father then took his very scared 16 year old son to this clinic in their beat up old station wagon.
My point is not that US hospitals should be providing free care to illegal foreign citizens. What I think should happen is that when someone from Mexico or elsewhere shows up at a US hospital, we treat them until they are stable, and we deliver a nice bill to the Mexican (or other) government. If they don't pay (which they likely won't) we subtract that amount from whatever US holdings that foreign government might have, or from whatever American aid they receive, or introduce it as a tariff on whatever goods they are bringing into the US. If they refuse to come up with ways to treat their own citizens, including a 16 year old boy who can't hear or speak, then they deserve to have their feet held to the fire.
we should not be treating for free any citizen of an OPEC country (MEXICO)
at least Saudi Arabia pays the medical bills for its citizens abroad
The men and their families filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming they received minimal rehabilitative care in Veracruz.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit last year ruling that Iowa Methodist was not to blame for the inadequate care in Veracruz. The courts also found that even though the families of the men may not have consented to their transport to Mexico, they also failed to object to it. An appeals court upheld the dismissal.
Amen.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
“it quietly loaded the two comatose men onto a private jet...”
What’s wrong with a Greyhound bus?
“Mr. Driver... please roll these guys off at the first stop south of the Rio Grande. Here’s an extra $20 for your time. “
It costs them less to fly them back to Mexico in a private jet than it does to take care of them.
If they are saving taxpayers money, sounds like a plan to me.
First I heard of this one. is this true?
Sounds too good to be true.
A car load of Marines visiting family in Mexico, were involved a traffic accident. (note: none were Hispanic)
Taken to a local hospital and stitched up, the next day ,they were told ‘good to go’.
Returning to the US and not feeling well , three of the four were admitted to the hospital, one staying over a week!
My best guess is they already have 0bamacare in Mexico?
Mexico has had a national health service for several decades.
Cheers to the hospital for doing something the fed gov refuses to do.
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