Posted on 05/09/2005 4:34:42 PM PDT by Boston Blackie
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Health care providers can charge the government for emergency care provided to illegal aliens beginning Tuesday.
Do not post excerpts from this story
We might as well annex the place and get it over with. Then at least we can collect some taxes from them.
Actually, this is an improvement. Congress long ago passed EMTALA which says that anyone showing up at an emergency room must be treated. It never did bother to say who was going to pay for this little mandate. The result has been an increasing tendency for people who don't want to pay to use ERs as the 7-11 of health care convenience. Even to the extent that they give fake names and IDs.
The federal government said it would pay by giving disproportionate share payments (aka pork) to states. They were theoretically supposed to pay for the care EMTALA required but the money doesn't necessarily go to the places that actually get stuck with the bill. A little suburban hospital in my city had an illegal construction worker dumped in their ER after he fell three stories. He was paralyzed and they had to absorb the half a million his treatment cost. Since they don't see a lot of Medicaid patients they didn't get a dime from the state DSH fund.
As a result, hospitals in areas with lots of illegals (Los Angeles, Texas, Arizona)have been going bankrupt. This is a stopgap measure to make sure that they people that deliver the care the Feds require at least get paid for it. The other good thing is that it will give us an idea of what it is really costing. Currently costs are buryied in individual hospital profit and loss statements.
The next problem is how to pay the docs that staff the ERs. When they treat a free care patient the hospitals make them eat it. As a result they are not willing to staff ERs...
As with so many other problems in health care, the root cause is forcing people to give their services away without expecting payment.
like I've said before, they have the best medical care. Better than Congress themselves. EVERYTHING IS FREE. To them paid for by you and me.
you are right. 1 billion will not even cover the cost in California.
ping
Send Mexico the bill, along with the body, dead or alive.
I can't wait till I go there for a REAL emergency, and be told I have to suffer for hours because the place is already half full of ILLEGALS getting free treatment.
Oh joy, joy.
I'm in favor of that.
Nationalized healthcare paid for by the US government starts on Tuesday, but only if you are a citizen of another country.
I've had it, there just too much rotten news today, I have to go to a happy place.
I'm going to go outside and do some target shooting.
HOw about billing Mexico for the cost of educating, feeding, housing, medicating, etc.?
Crazy. And where exactly do they plan to come up with this cash?
From your pocket.
Where do you live? I have a friend who brought a teenage son in for a fracture or similar injury, she was there 22 hours. But, I am in Arizona.
So, somebody help me out here. Does this mean if I learn to speak Spanish and don't take my billfold that I get free health care?
I am in Arlington, Texas. I know the situation in Arizona. I was born and raised in Tucson and still have most of my family in Arizona. One is a hospital administrator in Tucson.
ping
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