Posted on 08/13/2004 8:08:01 AM PDT by Dubya
FORT WORTH - Tarrant County once again has the largest hospital district in the state to decline to give taxpayer-subsidized preventive health care to illegal immigrants.
JPS Health Network trustees voted 6-4 Thursday to rescind a policy in place since January that gave illegal immigrants access to JPS Connections, the program of charitable clinic care.
It was a tough decision, said board Chairman Harold Samuels, who added that he made up his mind just before the vote was taken.
Trustee Dan Serna left the meeting before the vote.
More than 3,000 illegal immigrants have been approved for JPS Connections, and administrators have not decided how the reversal will affect them or when it will go into effect, Samuels said.
"We'll be fair," he said. "Quite often, we've treated people who were thought to be illegal and needed health care. The doctors have some leeway. It just won't be as wide open."
When trustees voted to open the system, they said they were acting on the advice of the Tarrant County district attorney's office, which interpreted a law passed by the 2003 Legislature to mean that hospital districts had to accept illegal immigrants for nonemergency care.
State lawmakers responded that the law was intended to give hospital districts the option to pay for such care but did not mandate it.
Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, then asked the Texas attorney general's office for an opinion, which was issued last month. But a Tarrant County assistant district attorney said that because Nelson's question was not broad enough, the attorney general's opinion was too narrow to clarify the issue.
Narrow or not, the opinion set the stage for Thursday's vote.
Trustee Neal Adams said his decision to propose and to vote for the policy reversal was a matter of legality and money.
"I have the utmost sympathy for those who are in this country illegally and are sick," Adams said. "But we are spending $250,000 to $300,000 a month on the care of undocumented immigrants. That's more than $3 million a year that could go to treat people who are here legally and need health care."
Trustee Erma Johnson-Hadley agreed.
"I personally know a lot of poor people in Tarrant County who can provide everything they need to get service here, but they make a little bit too much money, and we turn them away," she said. "Then there is someone who is in this country illegally, who cannot prove anything, and we give them access."
Also, officials had expected emergency room visits at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth to decline as more people took advantage of nonemergency preventive care. That hasn't happened, Adams said.
But other trustees said reversing the policy was fiscally and legally irresponsible.
"We've received some conflicting legal opinions," Trustee Steve Montgomery said. "I think there are some legal ambiguities here, and I think we're making a big mistake."
Federal law requires hospitals to give emergency care to anyone who needs it. Those people, illegal or not, will continue coming to John Peter Smith Hospital, said Trustee Bernard Rubin, a physician.
They "are going to get some of the most expensive care that we deliver," Rubin said.
The length of patients' stays at JPS is longer than the national average because JPS physicians are reluctant to release patients who they believe will not receive adequate care outside the hospital, Rubin said.
He predicted that JPS' costs will increase overall because of the policy shift. The hospital will admit more people through the emergency room, and then doctors will keep them longer because the patients will not have access to clinic care, Rubin said.
Also, he said, the JPS network has a responsibility to the community.
"Is the quality of care in Tarrant County better because we choose to exclude this segment of the population?" he asked. Mitch Mitchell, (817) 390-7420 mitchmitchell@star-telegram.com
"We'll be fair," he said. "Quite often, we've treated people who were thought to be illegal and needed health care. The doctors have some leeway. It just won't be as wide open."
So that's code for "nothing's actually changed"?
They will go ahead and treat the illegals, just don't let the lazy Americans know about it.
What a group of JERKS our political leaders are.
You have put it very well.
Answer those questions and see how many of your answers don't involve the race or INS status of the sick.
Most MDs and private clinics welcome illegal laborers because they are profitable. Many are covered by employer HMO plans or can pay cash.
Ping.
Either I don't understand what your post means, or you are for free health care.
I disagree.
You can get that in Canada I hear.
LOL, that must be why hospitals and emergency rooms across the southwest are going bankrupt and closing down.
Fact is, the vast majority of illegal aliens do not pay for their health care, you and I do.
Of course there are the Buchanan/Tancredo low brows who would revel in watching people suffer and die from lack of medical care as long as their immigration papers were not in order.
ping
GOOD!!!!
Hospitals in rural areas everywhere are having trouble competing with larger, better equipped urban hospitals. It has nothing to do with illegals, it has to do with people with insurance being willing to drive longer distances for better services.
Would you want open heart surgery in an out of date twenty bed rural hospital, or would you let your insurance company pay for an air ambulance to a state of the art major medical center?
Which countries did you see people dying on the streets?
In the past 12 months, Phoenix and Tucson lost 2 or 3 emergency rooms, due to illegal immigrants.
And yes, it has everything to do with illegals.
I live in the county where we have hospital districts that are paid for by our property taxes. How long can the government tax us to pay for illegals? The taxpayer is supposed to be quiet pay their taxes (if they want to keep their homes) and don't say a word.
Our local hospital emergency room is full of these illegals while those of us who are responsible and have insurance have to wait. I agree we should be humanitarian, but we should treat them and send them home immediately.
Illegal aliens should be deported. Period. While these criminals get often free care, our taxpayers are struggling to pay their own bills.
Before you call people lowbrows, consider that this article mentions preventive care. Usually this means things like well baby checks, various types of screening, health education, counseling, and so on. A lot of the taxpayer money allocated for this stuff goes to pay salaries for people on the government expert gravy train. One health center I looked at was helping people with resumes because it was good for their mental health.
Preventive care is not disease management, in which people with a chronic disease are treated. Preventive care includes things that American citizens paying for their own care might skip--well child checks, blood pressure, mammography, and so on. It is for things that aren't necessarily urgent or even cost saving. Preventive care often does lower individual risk, however. The good news is that it isn't that expensive. If you feel so strongly about it why don't you start a private fund so that illegals can buy these services from physicians with donated money?
EMTALA that requires hospitals to take care of anyone dumped in an ER. It isn't necessarily humane. The Feds are supposed to pay the bill for this through grants for uncompensated care. Still, hospitals along the border are going bankrupt. The problem is that EMTALA forces ER docs to work for free, and has stifled the development of cheaper urgent care clinics--if you can force a hospital to provide the care for free, why go somewhere that requires you to pay $50?
Hong Kong. India. I've also seen people in the Middle East suffering from untreated conditions. We won't tolerate suffering by humans or animals because we are civilized.
Would you be kind enough to document this. And could you be more specific about which middle east countries. I have been to many places in these areas and I didn't see what you say you seen?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.