Posted on 01/11/2006 7:46:17 PM PST by La Enchiladita
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - The emergency medicine system in the United States, already under stress, could fail if severely tested by a new natural disaster or terrorist attack, according to a report from the American College of Emergency Physicians.
The state-by-state evaluation awarded poor or near-failing marks in emergency medicine to 41 states and a grade of C- to the country at large. No state failed completely, but none earned top marks, according to the National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine, published by the college.
California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia led the nation with overall grades of B. Rating worst in the nation with grades of D+ or D were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The Gulf Coast states’ grading was established on the basis of statistics gathered prior to Hurricane Katrina.
“The Hurricane Katrina disaster demonstrated the critical role of emergency medicine in times of natural or man-made disasters,” said the report. “It also showed the need for ‘surge capacity’ in the critical time between when a disaster occurs and when state or federal resources can be mobilized to respond.”
The number of people coming to emergency departments continues to increase, said the college, with nearly 114 million patient visits in 2003, the highest number ever, the report said. At the same time, the overall capacity of the nation’s emergency systems has decreased, with hundreds of emergency departments closing in the past 10 years. Since 1993, the number of emergency departments has decreased by 14%, according to the report.
(Excerpt) Read more at medpagetoday.com ...
Illegals.
Prove it. There are PLENTY of non-illegals that are not paying anything either.
PLENNNNTTTTTYYYYY
Every "study" magically comes to the conclusion that the world would be a much better place if the the US taxpayers sent a big chunk of money in the direction of the study's sponsoring group.
Open borders.
This is correct. There are plenty of others who don't pay. But there are also plenty of hospitals that went out of business in the San Fernando Valley. That hasn't been so much the case in Nebraska. Why? ha! We all know why.
Well post some statistics that break down the number of people (legals) that are not paying for their medical attention. Then come back and post "illegals" and so on.
People need to back up their claims. Anyone can post anything on the internet.
In Texas, all you have to do is go to any hospital emergency room to see that most of the people there are not natives.
Quote
Rating worst in the nation with grades of D+ or D were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
end quote
I doubt the illegals are the problem in Wyoming, Washington, Indiana, Idaho, Alabama, and Virginia.
Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of a report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, is particularly concerned with increases in multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis, chagas disease, dengue fever, polio, hepatitis A, B, and C, she told Lou Dobbs on CNN in June.
"Certain diseases that we thought we had vanquished years ago are coming back, and other diseases that we've never seen or rarely seen in America, because they've always been the diseases of poverty and the third world, are coming in now," she said.
As WorldNetDaily reported, even leprosy is suddenly on the radar of health officials.
Cosman recommends closing the border to all illegal traffic, rescinding the citizenship of "anchor babies," those born in the U.S. to parents of illegals, and making the aiding and abetting of illegals a crime.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48161
Illegals, crooked John Edwards trial lawyers, uninsured, HMOs simply not covering ER care, and EMTALA (ERs cannot legally turn away emergency stabilization cases even though the government won't pay a penny).
The ERs in this country once lead the world in quality trauma care. NO more. The report is totally accurate.
Your example probes nothing. I can point to articles that talk about legals not paying.
Again post some TRUE statistics on the number of American Citizens who are not paying for medical attention. Then post some stats on illegals.
I would bet you that there are more legals not paying or that can't pay for their medical attention than there are illegals.
The regular "illegal" bashers jumped on this thread pretty fast. Now I will await those stats.
Quote "Illegals, crooked John Edwards trial lawyers, uninsured, HMOs simply not covering ER care, and EMTALA (ERs cannot legally turn away emergency stabilization cases even though the government won't pay a penny).
The ERs in this country once lead the world in quality trauma care. NO more. The report is totally accurate."
I agree...there are multiple reasons for this problem. Certainly not just the illegals.
To check your state:
http://my.acep.org/site/PageServer?pagename=wp1_homepage
Overburdened by the uninsured and overwhelmed by illegal immigration, public health care in Los Angeles is on life support.
Sixty percent of the county's uninsured patients are not U.S. citizens. More than half are here illegally. About 2 million undocumented aliens in Los Angeles County alone are crowding emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor.
According to the State Association of Hospitals, California's public health system is "on the brink of collapse." In Los Angeles County, patients can wait four days for a hospital bed and up to two years for gallbladder surgery.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150750,00.html
A study made by the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, an American lobbying group, found that U.S. hospitals in border states provide at least $200 million a year in uncompensated emergency care to illegal aliens. In the four border states, 77 hospitals now face a medical emergency.
Uncompensated care to illegal aliens in Arizona cost the Cochise County Health Department 30 percent of its annual budget, the Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee $200,000 out of a net operating income of $300,000, the University Medical Center in Tucson $10 million, and the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Tucson $1 million in only the first quarter of last year. The Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas is on the verge of bankruptcy and some emergency rooms and pre-natal units have closed because they can't afford to stay open.
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2003/jan03/03-01-29.shtml
"The American Hospital Association estimated that in 2000, the 24 southernmost counties from Texas to California accrued $832 million in unpaid medical care, a quarter of which was directly attributable to illegal immigrants," the Times reports. "Now, the financial pressures are spreading north into larger cities, pushing the overall unpaid bills well into the billions of dollars and straining a health care system already stretched thin by rising numbers of uninsured citizens, inadequate Medicaid payments, ballooning federal and state deficits and federal laws that allow United States border agents to wave through anyone who claims to need emergency care."
[“Burden Grows For Southwest Hospitals,” By Michael Janofsky, New York Times, April 14, 2003]
FYO, Hillary and Bill Clinton (the so-called great heatlth care geniuses) did a lot for Arkansas health care. Arkansas is dead last in the US. Worst ER/hospital care in the nation. Remember that in 2008.
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