HR 3722 voted down by Congress...We need more Illegal aliiens

PRNewswire ^ | May 18, 2004

[television is just wrong]

Press Release Source: California Healthcare Association

California Hospitals Praise Defeat of House Bill Requiring Hospitals to Report Illegal Immigrants Tuesday May 18, 3:36 pm ET Nurses and Doctors Are in the Business of Saving Lives, Not Acting As Border Patrol Agents

WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Healthcare Association (CHA) today praised the defeat of federal legislation that would have required hospitals to document the immigration status of patients seeking emergency health care services.

ADVERTISEMENT click here H.R. 3722 by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) was overwhelming defeated this morning by a strong bipartisan vote of 88-331 in the House of Representatives. Only eight out of California's 53 House members supported the measure.

"California's hospitals are on the front lines of providing health care to everyone who needs our help," said CHA President C. Duane Dauner. "Nurses and doctors are in the business of saving lives, not acting as agents for the Border Patrol. Hospitals do not have the expertise or the resources to interrogate and investigate the immigration status of patients -- especially in the pressured environment of the emergency department."

Dauner added that the defeat of H.R. 3722 "means that hospitals can continue to do what we do best -- care for patients and save lives."

Under the provisions of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals must provide emergency health care services to anyone who seeks treatment in an emergency department. Hospitals are not allowed to turn patients away because of their immigration status or ability to pay.

Last year, Congress appropriated $1 billion over four years to help hospitals cover the costs of treating undocumented immigrants. This funding was included in the landmark Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). CHA, together with a coalition of other state hospital associations and the American Hospital Association, has been working closely with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure that the grant program is implemented in a way that minimizes the administrative burden on hospitals providing care to illegal immigrants.

H.R. 3722, if passed, would have amended this funding provision in the MMA to prevent hospitals from receiving any funds for treating illegal immigrants unless they collected certain data - including citizenship and immigration status, employer and financial data - from those patients suspected to be in the country illegally. Hospitals also would have had to fingerprint and take digital photos of these patients, and then provide this information to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation proceedings.

Dauner noted that the passage of H.R. 3722 also could have had serious public health consequences if undocumented immigrants, fearful of deportation, avoided seeking treatment for such communicable diseases as meningitis or tuberculosis.

The defeat of H.R. 3722 means that hospitals throughout California and across the country that treat high numbers of undocumented immigrants will be entitled to receive funding to cover their costs of treating these patients.

Source: California Healthcare Association

[television is just wrong]

This would haverequired all hospitals needing reimbursement for illegal alien medical care to report suspected illegal aliens names to Dhs.

[Cousin Eddie]

This was the dumbest law I've seen in a long time. I live in L.A. and can't stand the illegal alien problem, but for Congress to require emergency medical workers to spend time on this is moronic.
If they're going to justify the mandate because "the governement is paying for this free service", then why not mandate that every librarian, every cross-walk attendant, every postal employee, etc., etc. report every suspected illegal?

[skeeter]

Open those wallets, America. We must attend to the little darlins' every need, nor do anything that will upset them.

Our country depends upon them, doncha know.

[NJ_gent]

Already posted twice.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1138097/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1138299/posts

[television is just wrong]

Just what do you suggest we do to curb this problem.

[television is just wrong]

Sorry, I did a search first with keywords. No results. Maybe Just not interesting to you guys.

[skeeter]

I get "interrogated" every time I go to the doctor. How much more trouble would it be to add an additional question or two on the registration form?

[television is just wrong]

Have you ever heard of special order number 40 by the L.A. City council? Also I believe Davis and his colleagues made it illegal to inquire about someones citizen status. We have to find out somehow, unless of course if we are no longer a sovereign nation.

[NJ_gent]

Try searching with just the word "illegal". Sometimes it's the simpler words that bring back the best results.

[netmilsmom]

>>require emergency medical workers to spend time <<

I did medical billing when I worked for a doctor. If a hospital wants to be reimbursed for it's care from Medicaid, it has to fill out a form. The emergency medical workers have nothing to do with it, the adminstrative workers do. It is not that hard to electronically submit the same form to any government agency.
In Detroit, we have Arab women spending their last month of pregnancy here to drop a little American citizen. We pay for it. We have to do something to stop the flow.
What do you suggest instead?

[robertpaulsen]

"require emergency medical workers to spend time on this"

Whoa! Been to a hospital lately? You could be gushing blood, but you'll spend 30 minutes at Admissions, presenting/confirming all sorts of information.

If a hospital can afford to spend all this time inputting/confirming all of my personal information (insurance company, current address, current employer, etc.), they can certainly afford the time to get this information from an illegal.

Treat the illegal until he is stable, then deport his ass. Oh, and make sure he has a copy of the hospital bill to give to Presidente Fox.

"Last year, Congress appropriated $1 billion over four years to help hospitals cover the costs of treating undocumented immigrants."

If a hospital refuses to document the number of illegals they treat, how are we supposed to know how much of this federal (ie, my) money they get? No documentation, no dinero.

[JustAnAmerican]

"If they're going to justify the mandate because "the governement is paying for this free service", then why not mandate that every librarian, every cross-walk attendant, every postal employee, etc., etc. report every suspected illegal?

Shouldn't that read, "Because the Government is taking money from the American Taxpayer to pay for illegals health care", so some POS Politicians and employers can get cheap labor at the expense of the very same American Taxpayer they are ripping off to begin with? Those who support illegals need to be run out of town, fined and generally shunned.

[InsensitiveConservative]

I live in Los Angeles and this was finally a step in the right direction.

[RSmithOpt]

"If a hospital can afford to spend all this time inputting/confirming all of my personal information (insurance company, current address, current employer, etc.), they can certainly afford the time to get this information from an illegal. Treat the illegal until he is stable, then deport his ass. Oh, and make sure he has a copy of the hospital bill to give to Presidente Fox."

DITTO!

[goldstategop]

Still no provision requiring foreigners to pay full compensation for all health care costs in the U.S. The House couldn't care less if the taxpayers foot the bill - after all we mustn't look politically incorrect where the welfare of illegal aliens is concerned.

[television is just wrong]

That is what this bill was supposed to do. The hospital would be required to report, dhs required to start deportation proceedings. Congress feels we all need to pay for this.

[NJ_gent]

"Just what do you suggest we do to curb this problem."

Secure our borders by giving the border patrol reasonable access to budget and equipment. Right now, in total between numerous agencies responsible for different aspects of border security, we spend roughly $10 Billion/yr. That's to cover a ~7,000 mile border - ~2000 miles for Mexico, ~5000 miles for Canada. We're currently cutting back on personnel. W's plan is to replace a bunch of flesh and blood people with sensors and UAVs. I'd say sending about $25 Billion into the hands of the border patrol and hiring, say, twenty to fifty thousand new people.

You then work on securing our ports and coastline. Increase funding, training, etc for the Coast Guard. Get together with the states to bump up the port authority or equivalent agency to ensure that no ship, no cargo container - nothing - gets into a port without being properly inspected.

Then you start overhauling the INS. Right now, it's a joke. They issued visas to several 9/11 hijackers after they killed 3,000 people on 9/11. For starters, no one gets into the country without an approved visa or proof of citizenship. For people looking to get extended visas (students, workers, anyone not here for a week-long tourism adventure), background checks, criminal profiling, thorough search of all belongings, etc. Long-term visa holders should have a photo on the visa, and on file with the INS, and perhaps even a GPS locater embedded in the visa. They're getting cheap enough to make that doable now. It wouldn't need to be something that's always tracking, perhaps something which automatically activates upon visa expiration.

You'd almost have to totally obliterate the current INS to make this happen, though. What we have now is a joke. I think you bring up the new INS along-side the old one. They already get a pretty good budget for what they do (about $6 Billion), but if we need to increase it, we need to increase it. Anything is better than what we have in place currently; essentially a "Welcome Illegals" sign at the border.

[television is just wrong]

I agree, but that is just what congress doesn't want to do. I believe, that that bill was at least a start.

[NJ_gent]

"I agree, but that is just what congress doesn't want to do."

Indeed, because modern Republicans have bought into the same BS Democrats bought into many years ago - maybe these illegals will vote for me one day.

"I believe, that that bill was at least a start."

That bill was a band-aid that turned every hospital into an INS satellite office. Not only did it not address the core of the problem, it would have prevented doctors from being doctors. Personally, I don't want a doctor to be called upon to be anything else. The art of medicine is quite overwhelming, and it's already far too complicated and bureaucracized as it is. If we remove illegals and keep them out, this is no longer a problem. Something like this is an insult to anyone who wants to remove illegals and keep them out, as it is an intelligence-insulting token gesture which does absolutely nothing to allieviate the problem of illegal immigration and pathetic border security.

[inflation]

Those doctors can't be doctors if they hospitals they are working at are closed due to illegals not paying their bills.