Good editorial!
Ping
If we're going to have nationalized health care, then let's do it already. But enough of this "Oh, we refuse to have national health care...unless of course you are an illegal alien, in which case go right ahead!"
I'm now Ricardo Nothinejuez.
See you at the hospitale!
FMCDH(BITS)
ping
We're already providing taxpayer funded health care to illegals and have been for many, many moons. As far as I can tell, this $1b just shifts part of the cost from the states to the feds.
States have hollered long and hard for the feds to pick up some of the costs of housing, feeding and caring for illegals. Now the feds are coughing up a billion to help defray health care costs. That's a good start in my book.
bonk
Excellent article!
The illegals already have emergency medicaid. So this is for chronic illnesses. This is an outrageous, double whammy against the American taxpayer. So far as I am concerned anything that is not an emergency should be shipped back to Mexico asap. I am sick and tired of our government saying that if we don't pay for illegals maybe, just maybe they won't get medical care. What about Americans that can't afford medical care because it is so ballooned out of proportion to pay for these illegals that they can't get help?
Americans that can't afford medical care are forced to pay for illegals. This sucks.
By my calculations, for this $1,000,000,000, you could pay out approximately $2,739,726 per day. This would deploy approximately 22,831 troop man-days on the border each day (calculated at a base military pay of $120 per 8 hour period, per soldier). If deployed in 8 hour shifts, that would mean around 7610 permanently patrolling troops on the border giving 24 hours a day coverage. As the Mexican border is approximately 2000 miles long, this would average 3 soldiers per mile (the rest being supervisory and support), 24 hours a day. I'd bet that would stop a lot of the illegal immigrants now showing up in Emergency Rooms all over the country!
As a benefit, rather than paying out "free" health costs for thieves sneaking in and stealing them from the American taxpayer the money goes into the pockets of our troops!
It was bad enough when my son was dropped by CHIP after only one month of coverage due to cuts in funding... but yet 2 months later I hear this commercial on the radio where a school nurse is calling Mrs. Gonzales or some spanish name to let her no Jose is running a fever and "oh by the way, why don't you apply for CHIP.." Talk about fuming!
But then again, it's kinda like my neighbors.... bi-racial family of 4 - mom, dad, son, daughter.... No one in the home works because 3 of them (dad & kids) draw SSI due to "disabilities"... uh huh... really disabled. Kids play unsupervised non-stop, dad works out at the gym everyday.
Yet, there again, my disabled son does not qualify for CHIP or SSI... go figure.
Same concept as paying for Illegals healthcare.
It's just so sickening and so very WRONG! Just makes me work that much harder to NOT be dependent on the gov't or anyone else for anything.
I can't afford to go to the hospital because I don't have any $$$ left after paying taxes for the criminal alien benefits Contract with America.
I would suggest that all legal citizens NOT enter any emergency room that is flooded with illegals.
Last week, it was stated that in Arizona, there is a rise in whooping cough cases. Who knows what else these people bring with them, TB maybe?
We're better off staying away from those places.
However, it peeves me to no end that they come over here and we have to pay for them.
Where is the outrage ? Where are the massive protests ? Why are the American people allowing this to happen ? We are giving away our country on a silver platter and all we can so is yack about it here on FR and elsewhere ? What the F is wrong with everybody ?
Even those who can afford to pay find that the quality of care is diminished by the illegal aliens hogging the emergency rooms. And why should they, or any citizen be forced to pay for these criminals? Our taxes are high enough.
Hate to say it, but yes you definately are.
Pathetic.
Truth to the matter is that when anyone, citizens or illegals, show up to the ER of hospitals, federal laws require that they receive medical screening and stabilization. Just recently, I took care of a 46 years old Mexican illegal. He showed up to the ER with severe headache, vomitting, disorientation and confusion. He was found to have meningitis. He subsequently went into respiratory failure and ended up on life support. During his hospitalization, he developed a heart attack and underwent emergent rescue percutaneous coronary angioplasty. Because of the severity of his coronary artery disease, he needed coronary artery bypass graft/open heart surgery. He spent weeks in the intensive care unit and nearly 2 months of hospitalization (rehab unit included). He had all sorts of invasive procedure done including lumbar puncture, central lines, arterial lines, Swan-Ganz monitoring, cardiac catheterization, open heart surgery, etc...not to mention the mountain of lab/blood works, xrays, CT scan, MRI, etc that were done, too. Naturally he could not afford his medical bills and paid not one penny of it. We don't even know where he lives and have no address. The point being, when a sick patient comes to the hospital we have a moral duty to treat. Where does that duty end? Even if the law allows us to turn away patients that show up to the Emergency Rooms, can we live with ourselves, can we reconcile this with our conscience?