Aid Package to Help Border Hospitals Cover Cost of Illegal Immigrants

Lubbock, TX, Avalanche-Journal ^ | 12-07-03 | AP

[Theodore R.]

Aid package to help border hospitals cover cost of illegal immigrants

BROWNSVILLE (AP) — Border hospitals lose millions of dollars annually caring for sick or injured illegal immigrants, but a $1 billion federal aide package promises relief.

"The federal government finally realized that there is a huge burden placed on the border hospitals to pay for the cost of the illegal aliens," said Dr. Lorenzo Pelly, a trauma surgeon at Valley Regional Medical Center. "It's a national issue because it is the federal government that has to stop the flow of the illegal aliens and they cannot do it."

A study by the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, an American lobbying group, last year found that U.S. border hospitals provide at least $200 million a year in uncompensated emergency care to illegal immigrants, $74 million of that in Texas.

When approving the Medi care bill last month, Congress allocated $1 billion to help border hospitals cover those costs. President Bush is expected to sign the bill Monday.

Texas and California would get the most money, followed by Arizona. The money will be allocated over four years, starting in 2005.

By federal law, hospitals and doctors must provide emergency care to a patient, regardless of insurance coverage or citizenship.

Most hospitals recoup their losses from caring for the poor and uninsured through Medi caid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. However, health care providers along the border find most of their pa tients are illegals who don't qualify for public assistance.

"It's a federal mandate, but an unfunded mandate," Sen. John Cornyn, R- Texas, said of the rule requiring emergency care for all people.

Cornyn and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., supported the allocation of federal funds to help border hospitals.

Kyl said hospitals in his state were cutting services or closing altogether because they didn't have enough money or insurance reimbursements to cover the costs of the free care they provided.

"It is a huge step forward and is an important symbol of Congress' growing awareness of the problems we face along our porous borders," Kyl said.

Each state would be eligible for reimbursement, but the funding formula is skewed to help border hospitals that frequently treat illegal immigrants.

Some lawmakers opposed the federal reimbursement, saying it would only encourage more illegal immigrants to cross the border for medical care.

"If you build an illegal alien entitlement program, they will come," said Sen. Tom Tan credo, R-Colo.

But Jack Martin, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said immigrants' medical costs point to a bigger problem.

Border states should not "carry a disproportionate burden of expenditures for illegal immigrants," he said. "But we also think it's irresponsible to provide reimbursement without at the same time trying to take steps to identify and remove from the country those illegal aliens who have been using the medical services."

[fiscally_right]

It's the government's responsibility, not the hospitals, to keep illegals out of emergency rooms. If the government can't take care of the problem, then they do need to cover the hospitals' costs.

[templar]

"It's a national issue because it is the federal government that has to stop the flow of the illegal aliens and they cannot do it."

More correctly, they will not do it.

[janetgreen]

If the government can't take care of the problem, then they do need to cover the hospitals' costs.

Why should Americans have to pay for it at all, whether from federal funds or state funds? We shouldn't. The huge bills should be sent to Vicente Fox and his corrupt government.

[umgud]

Yup.......too much confusin of the words can't and won't goin on here........

[fiscally_right]

What I'm saying is:

1) The government should keep illegals out.
2) Hospitals cannot turn anyone away from emergency rooms.
3) If the government can't keep illegals out, and they end up in emergency rooms, the hospitals cannot be expected to turn them away, so they may require government subsidy simply to avoid bankruptsy.

Of course the American taxpayer shouldn't have to pay for illegals' health costs, but the reality of the situation necessitates it unless the government gets its act together to keep illegals out in the first place. As for sending the bill to Mexico... great idea, if we could get them to go for it.

[texastoo]

The government, the American taxpayer, has no choice in this. The sorry Republicans slipped this into Medicare so there would be no debate on the subject.

Payment to illegals should have been a separate issue and not included in the Medicare Bill.

This $1 billion is just the beginning.

[GrandMoM]

Most hospitals recoup their losses from caring for the poor and uninsured through Medi caid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

.... and they charge insurance company's more for servicing their clients!

[Reaganwuzthebest]

"The federal government finally realized that there is a huge burden placed on the border hospitals to pay for the cost of the illegal aliens," said Dr. Lorenzo Pelly, a trauma surgeon at Valley Regional Medical Center.

That's good, so when is the federal government going to realize the borders are wide open and little is beng done to enforce the law? Close them and there won't be a burden on hospitals or taxpayers... that apparently is too hard for them to figure out.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Spiff]

It's the government's responsibility, not the hospitals, to keep illegals out of emergency rooms. If the government can't take care of the problem, then they do need to cover the hospitals' costs.

The government doesn't "take care of the problem." We are the government. The government isn't paying for the problem, we are. That money isn't just manufactured by the government, it is confiscated from all of us.

This is all just passing the buck. Everyone refuses to do the sane thing and secure the border and now everyone has to split the cost of giving the invaders free medical care.

Totally insane. Intolerable!

Thank goodness everyone in the U.S. will split the cost of keeping these hospitals open because it is only a matter of time until we'll need those same hospitals to treat the victims of a Smallpox or Anthrax attack committed by any number of terrorists who waltzed across our wide open border. We'll also need them to treat the victims of the shootouts between drug smugglers and people smugglers, people who have been beaten and carjacked, victims of the dangerous drugs pouring across the border, etc. etc.

[B4Ranch]

"It's a federal mandate, but an unfunded mandate," Sen. John Cornyn, R- Texas, said of the rule requiring emergency care for all people.

Unfunded mandates are used with the foreknowledge that they will keep States at the mercy of the approved Congressional budgets. When are we going to get just one governor with the stature and brains to say, "If it's required by the Feds and unfunded by the Feds this State will not consider it to be just and/or legal therefore we will not enforce nor obey it."

Do you have any idea what that would do to the Federal bureaucrats in DC? They would faint, heart attacks would be common because the citizens have risen without making any threats of violence.

The State Constitutions would once again be something for the Feds to actually have to take into consideration when making decisions.

Within two or three years DC would become what the Founders intended for it to be, the center for federal affairs, not State business.

All the UN approved ideas would sink right back into the swamp because unless a State agreed to follow them and they were funded by the UN, it would be just an idea someone had and was ignored.

Who was it who said, "We have given you a Republic, let's see if you can keep it?

[Missouri]

"It is a huge step forward and is an important symbol of Congress' growing awareness of the problems we face along our porous borders," Kyl said.

It is more like a huge step BACKWARDS. All this is going to do is encourage more illegals to cross our border to receive USA taxpayer supported health care. I'm sick of my taxpayer dollars going to nationals of another country when we have vets who sure could use better care.

I shot of an e-mail to one of my Republican ,Senators Kit Bond, complaining about this. Its certainly getting hard to brag about the republicans who control the House, Senate, and White House.

[concentric circles]

...U.S. border hospitals provide at least $200 million a year in uncompensated emergency care to illegal immigrants, $74 million of that in Texas..."

The figure for Los Angeles County last year was $340 million.

But an initiative petition is going into circulation in California for placement on the November '04 ballot that could start to bring that figure down. It will not deny medical attention, federal law requires treatment, but it will prohibit other services, require reporting to the INS when citizenship cannot be verified, deny drivers licenses, and prohibit recognition of documents issued by consulates (matricula consular) as legitimate identification by state agencies.

[Looking4Truth]

Polls show 75% of America wants strict immigration laws enforced. Yet congress continues to ignore the will of the public.

That's why I will never pay taxes again, no taxation without representation. The next Civil War is coming.

[Theodore R.]

Polls show 75% of America wants strict immigration laws enforced.

Yet 75 percent (or more) vote for candidates pledged to continue lenient immigration policies. Maybe the voters don't really know what they believe. Maybe they cannot understand who they are supporting -- those that bother to come to the polls, that is.

[TLI]

The next Civil War is coming.

Not really a "civil" war, it will be the Second American Revolution . . . AR2.

TLI

[JustPiper]

Like giving a Billion to Nevada!

[TLI]

The next Civil War is coming.

Not really a "civil" war, it will be the Second American Revolution . . . AR2.

Doing a bit more searching, I came across this, and decided to re-post with the following. If you think the author is some wildeyed right wing wacko, check out the author's pic...

SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION?

government has separated from the people

By Dorothy Anne Seese: 02.01.02

They're fighting mad and they have a right to be. For anyone who isn't mentally incapacitated by ABC-CBS-NBC news, or CNN, you should know that Americans are not a free people and we do not live in a free nation. Government has separated from the people and become Planet Washington D.C.

You should also know who is at fault besides the government ... YOU.

American willingness to believe major media, to want government"protection" that violates a citizen's privacy or other freedoms under the Bill of Rights, and the increasing reliance on government to protect individual security has given us everything short of martial law, which appears to be on its way soon. The Pentagon wishes to appoint a four-star general in charge of "homeland defense" and that means farewell and good-bye to the Posse Comitatus act.

Many of us, but perhaps not enough of us, can see that we are no longer a free nation.

If the liberal, or even "impartial" media told the truth about what has been going on in this nation, there would have been an uprising after the Waco conflagration. There has been much evidence presented (but not on the six o'clock news) about why Timothy McVeigh alone could not have brought down the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, there had to be additional explosives involved that he did not possess. Yet when he was executed, Americans went back to sleep, content that the government had seen to it that "justice" was satisfied.

Horsefeathers.

The cover-up of the bombing of TWA Flight 800, the confusion being generated over Flight 587 that crashed in New York, the land grabs out west, the rural cleansing that is occurring by government backing of hyper-environmentalism and land-use restrictions, withholding of water or other essentials to farmers, and other violations of rights of citizens are each and every one sufficient for us to recall most of the members in Congress (both houses) and the present administration, as well as prosecuting the leadership of the immediate past administration.

We're a sold-out nation and most Americans do not realize it, but enough do that they are willing to fight unless this tyranny is stopped.

Some folks consider me a radical or right-wing fanatic. Actually, all I do is work as an analyst of times, trends and events and write down what to me is obvious. Also, I get feedback emails from the columns that are published, and many of these tell me just how far our patriotic backbone of America is willing to take this war against government tyranny.

This nation has been the target of globalism for decades and the globalists are now closing in with the last and final attack against America ... that is the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and along with it, the Christian church (which is sitting in the corner worried about its IRS status rather than sounding out the cry of Paul Revere from the pulpits).

Most Americans now seem to be waking up to the fact that the "war against terrorism" in Afghanistan was a military exercise to unseat the Taliban not because they were terrorists or radicals, but because they were uncooperative with the global agenda and the interests of multinational big oil. How many folks now are really concerned with Osama bin Laden? The interest has waned in government (because they needed a face of evil) and in the public.

The next step toward complete abrogation of all American freedom will be preceded by another "terrorist attack" of some sort, enough to frighten the public into surrendering the remainder of its freedom without so much as a whimper. All Americans, except those who understand how the agenda works and what to expect, will panic and surrender. It will apparently not affect those whose focus is on the restoration of a constitutional America. At least, they are saying it will not.

Most of America's citizens are more concerned about how Enron's collapse will affect our economy and their lifestyle.

What's destroying our economy is the stranglehold of the large multinational corporations and government treaties that are taking American jobs away and sending them overseas, and at the same time driving the farmers and independent American landowners off their land so they cannot produce food and provide for the nation. It's a matter of TOTAL government control. Ask the Klamath Farmers and dozens of others who know what the term "rural cleansing" means. They know first hand.

Try to start a profitable entrepreneurial business today and you have a very slight chance of success with all the government red-tape.

The next in line, after the economy (and we cannot believe that our leadership wants the economy to recoup without total global interdependence) is the last of the Christian churches that will never "register" to have their message dictated and controlled by government political correctness. They and their congregations will be in grave personal danger for their faith.

From what I can observe, the wheat has mostly been harvested and the tares are taking over the fields.

That means, to me, that this world is not far from the promised Final Judgment. Look at the Enron record of debauchery ... it was all greed, lust, immorality through and through, a Roman circus of depraved human behavior. That isn't true capitalism, that's the mark of imperialism or oligarchy. Something went wrong, they failed, and now they can either go to jail or kill themselves. What happens to the little people? I don't know. If I had been working in a mess like that (and I don't think they would have tolerated me ten minutes nor I them) then running away would have been my answer. No job is worth compromising your character ... if you have any you won't compromise it or rationalize it away.

We've lived it up in America, at the cost of our freedom, our self-respect and the virtues espoused by our founders, and the time has come to pay the piper.

All those nice toys didn't come without a hidden price tag in addition to what you paid the cashier at the store.

If our enemies don't nuke us, then we will probably become a banana republic because there are so many laws against private citizens trying to rebuild the America that was, it will be impossible to rebuild it without first returning to our constitutional base and the tenets of biblical morality. Maybe the people won't have it. If they won't, they will get the banana republic they deserve, and America, as it was, will be history ... rewritten history at that, because the revisionists are already at work.

However, if my analysis of times, trends and events is correct, this nation will not go down without a second American Revolution.

It's brewing now ... the question is, where will the Tea Party take place?

Permission to reprint/republish granted, as long as you include the name of our site, the author, and our URL. www.SierraTimes.com All Sierra Times news reports, and all editorials are © 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)

Very interesting, and it was written just a short time before the illegal border invasion issue got a foothold and grew fangs on the `net. `Lill Miss Grandmaw is dead on correct, it is brewing now and is looking for a Boston Harbor to blow the lid off of about a century of Federal Government abuse of the American citizenry.

See ya at the front . .

TLI