Posted on 12/28/2003 10:49:51 AM PST by mrustow
If you went the ER and were sent home four times you got seen four times. You may have had incompetent doctors but you did get seen which is the opposite of what the complaint was. How about you have your personal doctor get you admitted to the hospital. BTW, where I live the doctors call ahead and have a bed set aside for you. It pays to have a doctor actually affilated with the hospital.
The ER costs the same whether its busy or quiet and regardless of who is being served.....Dave S
Dave S , you are not taking into account that E.R.'s are built and staffed to accomodate the patient population they serve.
Our E.R. has the size and staff to serve the number of patients living in our County at the current time. Our County demographics is such that there are enough patients who pay their bills to keep our E.R. financially solvent.
If the population of our County were doubled by individuals who used our E.R. services but paid little or nothing in return, the E.R. staffing, equipment and medication costs would double but E.R. income would stay the same. Our E.R. would then go from a financially viable entity right into bankruptcy.
Your assumption is correct. I would still have a problem with this solution.
The problem is the volume. A volume that robs the recent immigrant of his chances to prosper and profit. A volume that robs our society of it's ability to assist the less equipped to prosper.
Immigration is the lifeblood of our society and culture. It brings diversity and a competitive spirit. Massive, unregulated migration victimizes both the immigrant and the society. It Balkanizes the immigrant leading to hysterical, unwarranted bigotry and robs our existing society of its ability to sustain the values and traditions that have served us so well.
Have you ever been to an ER in Southern California? I doubt it. A cursory glance doesn't count as being "seen". I didn't get more than a cursory glance because they were so busy. I have been to ERs in different areas of the country and it's nothing like SoCal.
You need to read more carefully. My personal doctor SENT me to the ER. Three times. He told me the ER should see me withing 20 minutes of my getting there, and he did "call ahead". The DOCTOR'S OFFICE IN IS THE HOSPITAL, NOT JUST AFFILIATED WITH IT. The regular doctor's office was very frustrated with the crowded ER situation. The surgeon they called in at 3AM to do emergency surgery so I wouldn't die was also frustrated with the situation. I highly suspect that one of the ER doctors was incompetent, but the others were just too busy to look at anyone properly unless blood was actively spewing out of them. Everyone else just gets antibiotics.
Think this is an isolated incident? It's not. There are many others who have the same experience. Did you read the thread last week about CA cutting Healthy Families or whatever the program is called? The illegals threatened to just use the ERs more often. They use it as their primary care. My father almost lost a leg after being sent to the ER by his doctor. He had a blood clot. They waited about 6 hours to see him, even though his doctor called ahead and said the situation was an extreme emergency because every minute counts when your leg is going without blood circulation. His doctor even called several times to yell at them because they hadn't even looked at him yet. His doctor's office is across the street from the hospital. The hospital is also considered by many to be a "good hospital". Neither of us went to public hospitals, where the situation would have been even worse! The ER was crammed with people speaking Spanish again in his case. My mother, who also speaks Spanish, didn't inquire as to legal status. My parents live in an area where small middle-class-style houses cost $600,000+, but the influx of illegals to the area hospitals is still enormous. At least they didn't send my dad home to die like they did with me.
You need more? My cousin is a doctor in the San Fernando Valley. He's quite frustrated with the amount of illegals who come in with the sniffles, preventing him from seeing people with real emergencies. One of my good friends is a new doctor down in San Diego, and she tells the same story. She's also an immigrant, as are many in my family. My mother didn't speak English when she started school. The difference is that we immigrated legally, had no help and expected no help from the government, got educated, followed the rules like good citizens, and in general feel grateful for what the US has provided, rather than greedy over what the US should "give us".
I'm assuming St. John's is a private hospital, too. I could believe this stuff coming from a county hospital in the heart of L.A., but we're talking affluent suburbs and private hospitals here. Unbelievable, but true.
It's the California socialist welfare state that has brought this attitude about. They feel entitled to everything. I recently moved to Indiana, and I teach ESL here. The immigrants (some legal, some not) that we get here have different attitudes. The ones straight from Mexico or coming from most of the states have pretty good attitudes, attend ESL classes, get educated, follow the rules, and try hard to make it. The ones from California and sometimes Colorado have learned one word very well in English..."Gimme". I teach in the part of the state with the highest concentration of hispanics, but it's still only 4%. They learn quickly that there are no programs here for them like that. They look at me and expect me to be sympathetic with them, but I'm not and I don't know any hard working people who are, immigrants or not. If things keep going the way they're going in all states, it's only a matter of time before entitlements are in place in all 50 states and we are all taxed to death to pay for people who are greedy yet don't want to work or get educated to earn money for the lifestyle they envy. 4% is a whole lot better situation than 40%, so people here for the most part still either assimilate or move somewhere else. I agree with others on this thread that it's not immigration that's the problem, it's the deluge of unskilled, welfare-state-wanting, unassimilating illegal immigrants who put a drain on society.
Social security was ok when it was started because there were so many more workers compared to retired people then. Now, when there are too many retired and not enough workers, it's a burden. Same with the immigration of low-skilled people. A small percentage is supportable by the working public, even though it still sucks. A larger percentage, like it is now in California, is a HUGE burden. If anyone doubts, look at California.
Anyone pretending that we can have free immigration of unskilled workers without a huge welfare state is absurd. What are we going to do with these people? Let them all live in tents on the hillsides of SoCal? Never going to happen, not with all the social advocacy groups out there. Would you really want people living in tents near your neighborhood, anyway? Crapping in buckets and dumping it in the gutters? That IS what would happen if we had completely open borders. Let them all cram together in garages and apartments, with 4-6 people to a room? Can you imagine the crime that will go along with having that many people envying what others have gotten through hard work? Wait, nobody has to imagine. Read Mexifornia, that describes the situation as it is already.
Wow, I am writing books on this subject today.
I'd say it is more like they are throwing fuel onto the fire.
Here in Phoenix and suburbs, a middle class neighborhood can hold it's own for 15 years, approximately. After 15 years, it's rental city, break-ins, car theft, full extended family from some third world cess pool, etc.
WHY can't you?
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