Posted on 07/25/2004 7:30:22 PM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
HOUSTON - While hospital districts in Texas can provide nonemergency health care to illegal immigrants, they are not required to do so, state Attorney General Greg Abbott has said in a legal opinion.
In February, the Montgomery County Hospital District's board members argued over whether they were forced to provide such health care under a new state law. They put a decision on hold and asked Abbott for an opinion.
But the legal debate of the issue in Texas goes back to 2001, when then-Attorney General John Cornyn ruled that a federal welfare overhaul five years earlier prohibited states from offering nonemergency, preventive health care to illegal immigrants unless a specific law allowed it. Texas had no such law then. Federal law requires all hospitals, public or private, to treat emergency room patients.
Cornyn issued his ruling after the Harris County Hospital District in Houston asked him for guidance. Harris County and others around the state continued providing such health care while Montgomery County, located north of Houston, and some others stopped.
State lawmakers last year passed House Bill 2292, which made such health care legal under the 1996 welfare overhaul.
When the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office in January ruled the new legislation required its county's hospital district to provide such free or discounted care to illegal immigrants, that created more confusion on the issue. The hospital district had not provided such health care since 1997.
In his opinion, issued late Friday, Abbott wrote that under the new state law, an illegal immigrant "is eligible to receive public health benefits. But an undocumented person is not entitled to receive those benefits from state funds...And he or she may be entitled to receive such benefits from local funds only if a particular hospital district permits the use of its funds for that person."
William Leigh, a board member of the Montgomery County Hospital District, said he doesn't think the board will decide to offer such health care for either the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, or during the next one, which begins Oct. 1.
The board will spend August creating the next fiscal year's budget and at that point make its final decision on whether it will offer such benefits to illegal immigrants.
"Frankly I hope we don't because I don't believe the service is necessary and I don't think the economy and taxpayers of Montgomery County can afford it," Leigh said. "I just don't think it's fiscally responsible."
Hospital district officials have said if such health care was mandatory, it would cost the county nearly $2 million the first year and more than $20 million by 2008.
Leigh said that illegal immigrants will be able to receive preventive health care at several area clinics, including one that has been designated by the federal government to take care of such individuals.
But local immigrant rights and health care activists disagree with the hospital district, saying it makes economic sense to have individuals treated early, before they need to go to an emergency room, which can be three to 10 times more expensive.
Dr. Steven Farber, a cardiologist and founder and chairman of the political action committee Healthcare Excellence and Responsible Taxation, said he wasn't surprised by the ruling but was disappointed. Farber said the issue has to be addressed "at a local level unless immigration laws change."
"The problems are still going to be there," Farber said. He is concerned about the potential health risks that the general public could face from diseases that might be brought across the border, the impact of overcrowded emergency rooms and the costs of care.
Farber said his group's goal is to bring affordable, accessible health care to everyone in the county, including 40,000 citizens without insurance.
Actually the author of this article is mistaken on this point. Federal law only requires that all individuals seeking treatment at a hospital emergency room must be examined by a member of the medical staff, usually the triage nurse. If the triage nurse decides that the patient's medical condition is not severe or life threatening, that patient can legally be denied treatment by the emergency room's medical staff.
Perhaps we should have a medical exchange program with Mexico so our personnel can learn to suppress their spirit of human compassion.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHETHER WE SHOULD CONTINUE OR NOT.
IMMIGRATION'S DEADLY INVASION OF DISEASES BY RN STEPHANY GABBARD AND FROSTY WOOLDRIDGE
The invasion of illegal aliens pouring over the borders of the United States is taking an ominous turn. They are not alone! Their bodies may carry Hepatitis A, B & C, tuberculosis, leprosy and Chagas Disease. Chagas, which is a nasty parasitic bug common in Mexico and South America, infects 18 million people and 50,000 die annually.
More sobering is the fact that an average of 2,000 unscreened illegal immigrants cross the Mexican border every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's nothing short of a health care crisis form of bio-terrorism.
Illegal aliens, by avoiding health screenings at the U.S. borders, carry Dengue fever and the most serious MDR-TB, a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. World wide, TB kills two million people annually. It creates a higher death rate then cancer. MDR-TB occurs when Mycobacterium TB becomes resistant to the most powerful TB drugs, Isoniazid and Rifampin.
According to the New York Academy of Sciences, 2002 update, "Ordinary TB requires a six-month regimen of four drugs for cure. MDR-TB requires up to two years of treatment with a complex regimen of much more expensive drugs to which the patient's TB bacteria are susceptible."
Many of these drugs have toxic side effects. A patient with MDR-TB will infect others with MDR-TB, not ordinary TB. "It has been called "Ebola with Wings," by Lee B. Reichman M.D., M.P.H., in his chilling book 'TIME BOMB: THE GLOBAL EPIDEMIC OF MULTI DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS.'
"TB bacteria readily fly through the air, as when an afflicted person coughs. It's estimated that each victim will infect 10 or 20 or more people--in whom the disease will likely remain latent, creating the potential 'timebomb' effect," according to the New York Academy of Sciences, Update, January, 2002.
To make matters worse, in excess of 7,000 new cases of leprosy (Hansen's Disease) have been diagnosed in the USA in the past three years. It is now endemic to the Northeastern United States for the first time, ever.
Ironically, only 900 cases of leprosy were reported in the last 40 years in the United States. Immigrants coming from India, the Caribbean and Brazil are the most likely to carry leprosy.
Chagas, sometimes called the kissing bug disease because the parasite favors the face as a route of infection comes in acute and chronic forms. The chronic kind can damage the heart, causing enlargement with subsequent heart failure and death. Chagus also damages the intestines.
It kills 50,000 annually south of the Mexican border. Nine confirmed deaths have been reported in the USA. Its worst manifestation is when illegal immigrants carrying the parasite give blood.
This parasite now threatens our blood supply, yet no means to test the blood is currently available. Ironically the public health community has been aware of this danger for years. "Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected, experts say, and there is no effective treatment for them.
After a decade,10 to 30 percent of them will die when their hearts or intestines, weakened by the disease, explode," according to the New York Times, November 18, 2003 by Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Three people received Chagas infected organs in 2001, the first such cases reported in the United States, ever! Two 30-year-old women recipients died. It is moving quietly through Los Angeles, California and Miami, Florida. Dengue Fever, with reports of polio, and now, the first case of malaria in Texas trickle into the United States as the invasion of illegal aliens increases in numbers.
This health care crisis threatens America's population including its children. Undiagnosed disease due to uncontrolled illegal immigration is not confined to California and the border states any longer.
This health care crisis spreads daily across the entire nation. In 2002, Northern Virginia reported a 17 % increase in tuberculosis cases. Prince William County alone reported a staggering 188 percent jump over the previous year. Health officials have attributed this out break to immigrants. They also give "new immigrants" credit for introducing MDR-TB (the drug resistant strain).
In 2001 Marion County experienced an outbreak of Multi-Drug Resistant TB, which was investigated by the Indiana University School of Medicine. Their findings? Mexican Nationals, i.e., illegal aliens, flooding into the area caused the problem.
In Queens, New York the health department found that 81% of new TB cases in 2001 were those of "immigrants". The CDC reports that last year 1/2 of all new TB cases were attributed to foreign born people, who have an eight times higher incidence of TB. Recent outbreaks include Portland, Maine, Del Ray Beach, Florida and Michigan.
The top five TB importing countries are Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and China. In 1999 a health advisory was issued due to a Dengue Fever outbreak along the Mexico (Nuevo)/Texas (Webb County) border. Dengue fever is a virus spread by mosquitoes, causing high fever, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting. It is not usually fatal but there is a more serious strain called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which CAN kill you.
It gets worse. The U.S. government, which is sworn to protect American citizens, is in reality, aiding and abetting this health care crisis.
Quoting a Fox News Report from April 4, 2003, Miguel, an illegal alien who worked construction on a subway renovation project for months, was able to change his status to legal permanent alien. There was only one problem, Miguel was infected with tuberculosis. This did not stop the federal government from issuing Miguel a health waiver under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a waiver that permits him a green card, even though his disease made him inadmissible for the waiver. Miguel, with a TB infected body, is now legally free to move about the country.
The outbreak last fall of hepatitis 'A' in Monaco, Pennsylvania's Chi Chi restaurants stemmed from 14 'unscreened' employees testing positive for hepatitis. Thus far, three customers died and thousands of Americans were exposed.
While green onions were pronounced the guilty culprits coming from farms in Mexico, the evidence points to a lack of federal inspections at the Mexican border. Little known to most Americans, millions of illegal aliens work in food service. With an estimated 9 to 13 million unscreened border crossers, Americans are at risk every time they go out to eat at restaurants that hire illegal immigrants.
What does this mean to American citizens? It means your children are at risk when attending school. It means that when a classmate from a foreign country sneezes or coughs, your child may be at risk for any number of diseases. If you go to the movies, you're breathing air that may be carrying tuberculosis. If you eat at a fast food restaurant, your food could be prepared by a person infected with hepatitis. It means if you need a blood transfusion, the blood could be infected with Chagas Disease, a parasite that will destroy your heart and other organs.
What can you do? You may visit the principal of your school and insist that every child pass a complete health screening for tuberculosis, head lice and hepatitis. You may ask local health inspectors to check restaurants in your community to see that all employees are legal American citizens and have been health screened.
For such diseases such as Chagas, which is undetectable, you may call your senator or representative, 800-648-3516 and demand they secure the U.S. border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration by whatever means you deem necessary. ###
Sources: TIMEBOMB: GLOBAL EPIDEMIC OF MULTI DRUG RESISTANT DISEASES NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOX NEWS: MATT HAYES 4/4/03
When you use a public restroom, after washing your hands, keep the paper towel and use it as a mitt to open the door. Then toss it at the trash pail as you exit. This will keep you from catching whatever the person in front of you was carrying on his hands.
I know the answer is to stop them from coming in but what are we going to do about the infected ones who are here now?
My Mom died from TB, I caught it from her when I was 5. What do we do to protect our kids?Is it pay or die?
Very good post.
And now the rest of the story.
Dr. Farber is more concerned with a loss of income derived through his medical clinic('s) that provide medical treatment / services to illegal aliens in Montgomery County. The newsies always manage to leave that part out of their stories when writing about Dr. Farber and how all he wants to do is provide tax-payer funded medical services and care for those poor unfortunate souls, aka illegal aliens.
Dr. Farber is a wealthy doctor wanting even more of our taxpayer dollars while pretending to want to care for undocumented illegal aliens.
You're quite correct. The newsies always seem to leave this part out of their stories.
I doubt that most triage nurses have that much responsibility. The reason would be law suits against the hospital.
The illegal aliens know how to work the system. Down here in South Texas, one of the biggest days in the ERs is Sunday. On Sunday all doctors offices are closed so they are guaranteed free health care.
Worth repeating and shouting from EVERY rooftop!!!
Distracts from the fact that a hospital, under most circumstances, is not required to have an emergency room.
Been doing that for years. I keep spare paper towels in my pocket when going out. They're good for covering your mouth and nose when caught in the proximity of a sneezer and donating to leakers.
Let me add: When using public facilities be conscious of keeping your hands away from your mouth and nose until they're washed.
I also frequently carry packets of anti-bacterial hand wipes (the kind in individual packets) and a small bottle of Purell. Sometimes I'm at places where the only restrooms are the porta-potties - no places to wash up.
I started being more careful when I heard that there was an upsurge in antibiotic resistant TB in San Francisco. Not that TB is prevented by washing your hands, but there are plenty of other things transmitted by hand-to-mouth. Ugh. Just thinking about using hand rails and bannisters, and elevators in public places, all the things you might touch in the course of a day out and about in a public place. Having seen restrooms in a federal building where the INS is located, I'm a lot more careful about handwashing and such.
These disease-infested people may be the ones preparing food at our favorite restaurants. Cheap labor indeed!
Wow, great post as always.
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