Hospital warns migrants to pay up: Says failure could mean deportation

The Arizona Republic ^ | November 29, 2003 | Susan Carroll

[sarcasm]

TUCSON - Uninsured immigrants who fail to pay their medical bills are being reported to immigration officials and warned that they could face deportation under a new University Medical Center policy.

This month, hospital workers started calling the federal bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn in "foreign nationals" with delinquent accounts, said Barbara Felix, UMC's international patient service's coordinator. The policy, affecting legal and undocumented immigrants, reflects the growing frustration of hospital administrators along the U.S.-Mexican border saddled with millions of dollars in uncompensated care. UMC alone has incurred $3.3 million in unpaid bills from immigrants since July.

[FITZ]

That is very true. I personally know an American living in Arizona who needed surgery and the doctor told her that if she had been an illegal she could have had the operation right away.

It's not just illegals --- many of the people from Mexico easily get visitor visas or already had them to legally enter and obtain their free health care. If you're living on the border and have no insurance --- if you own a small house on the US side, it counts as an asset and you could end up with a lien on it if you try to use a county hospital --- but if you live on the Mexican side, you can have a mansion and it doesn't count as an asset because they can't put a lien on it. The county hospitals along the border have become hospitals pretty much only for Mexican nationals --- they cost too much for Americans to use because they're free to Mexicans.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Bump for later.