Posted on 08/31/2004 10:20:03 AM PDT by Ramonan
SAN DIEGO -- A La Jolla surgeon is among a handful of people suing the federal government to reverse a medical translation law. The law requires that doctors provide access to professional translators when needed by patients, NBC 7/39 reported. It does not require that the translators be there in person and doctors may provide the translation via 3-way telephone calls.
Cliff Colwell,a La Jolla orthopedic surgeon, says many doctors and hospitals are opting out of the program because it is too expensive. Moreover, he says, the 5-year-old law passed during the Clinton presidency is unconstitutional.
Before the law passed, family members would often provide translation for non-English speaking patients, said Fran Butler-Cohen, a representative with the Family Health Centers of San Diego. Returning to that era would be dangerous, she said.
"A 4-year-old, an 8-year-old or, in some cases, a 12-year old, cannot provide adequate translation," Butler-Cohen said.
Butler-Cohen said doctors who feel they cannot provide adequate translation for patients should simply refer the patient to another doctor.
An English-only advocacy group is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, NBC 7/39 reported. The group filed the same lawsuit in a Virginia superior court and lost. Colwell could not explain why he chose San Diego as the venue for this lawsuit
Any data on the lawsuits that illegal immigrants have filed because the used translator service was inadequate resulting in some minor injury/illness...
Como?
Spanish-language is only part of the problem: how many of the doctor's patients are even here legally?
They want medical care by a spanish-speaking doctor, they need to hike on back to ol' Mayheeco.
The official English group referenced in ProEnglish. You can check out their web site at www.proenglish.org. You can also send faxes in support of official English to your congressmen from their web site, and make donations to help them; they rely on those contributions and are outspent by opponents to the order of hundreds to one.
We now return to our program...
I used to know a woman who was a sign language interpreter for the deaf. She was frequently hired to accompany deaf patients on doctor visits and interpret for them. The deaf patients paid for this on their own. Why can't non-English speakers pay for their own interpreters? Deaf people don't choose to be deaf, but non-English speakers chose to come to this country, and they chose not to learn English.
It is unconstitutional on it's face: a law cannot compel action in this country under the Supreme Court precedents laid down with 13th Amendment cases and a few Eminent Domain cases - particulary one in Springfield, Oregon where building permits were issued to those people who "volunteered" to work on a Rails-to-Trails project...unpaid compelled servitude.
This is no different.
Good people need to stand up to bad laws. This is a bad law.
No. They want medical care by a spanish-speaking doctor, and they want it for free.
Excuse me, not free. Just paid for by somebody else.
Only the very poor and the very rich can afford dental restoration work.
Listen, it has been a long time since Great Britain united and I don't think it appropriate for anyone, doctor or not, to say whether we should allow the Scots, Welsch or anyone else to be in a classroom. Sure, I know they sometimes smell funny, but that is what we now call "diversity".
Note to self: Read more than just titles.
Hey, if the medical community becomes any more hostile to Hispanics, illegal Mexican criminal aliens whose bills are paid by the taxpayers, may just take their medical concerns to another country!!
bttt....
Because THEY DON'T HAVE TO, thanks to the Clinton-era law that mandates that the DOCTOR or hospital pay for the interpreter. Rarely does an onerous unfunded mandate fall so squarely on the shoulders of individuals and small institutions like rural hospitals.
They should get free meds, as long as they collect them in person, in Mexico City.
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