Posted on 04/28/2008 4:54:19 AM PDT by Dukes Travels
I dont know what the intent of the left-leaning Los Angeles Times was when they reported last week that Healthcare gap could be fatal for ill immigrants, but it got my attention.
The article explained how an illegal Mexican immigrant snuck her infant daughter, Puente, to Los Angeles to seek treatment for a liver ailment. True to form, the infant received not one, but two liver transplants 10 years apart at an average cost of $520,000 a pop, including anti-rejection medication. Ten years later, she received a third liver transplant, all courtesy of the California taxpayers through a state health care program for indigent children under the provisions of Medi-Cal.
Now shes 21 years old and the state refuses to pay for a fourth liver transplant because shes too old for a specific child program. To me, the health care gap that could be fatal for ill illegal immigrants was certain death for the three American taxpaying residents of California that were deprived of one because they were passed over for an illegal alien. There are only so many livers available for transplants, and obviously three deserving Americans were deprived of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
Sadly, this point is well taken. It is likely a poor medi-cal receiptiant or two died or at the very, very least suffered for longer than they should have while waiting.
There is a real shortage of organs.
While it would be nice if we could continue to provide the world with free healthcare, I’m afraid there are only so many livers to go around.
Why doesn't Mexico take care of its own people? Why don't the ultra-wealthy Mexican elites help to pay for the health care and education etc of their own poor? Why do they instead encourage their poor to leave Mexico and invade the United States? Nature provides a parallel that is instructive.
Some species of birds thrive not by carefully rearing their own young, but by pawning that task off on adults of other species. The European Cuckoo, whose distinctive call is immortalized in the sound of the "cuckoo clock," is the bird in which this habit has been most thoroughly studied. Female European Cuckoos lay their eggs only in the nests of other species of birds. A cuckoo egg usually closely mimics the eggs of the host (one of whose eggs is often removed by the cuckoo).
The host may recognize the intruding egg and abandon the nest, or it may incubate and hatch the cuckoo egg. Shortly after hatching, the young European Cuckoo, using a scoop-like depression on its back, instinctively shoves over the edge of the nest any solid object that it contacts. With the disappearance of their eggs and rightful young, the foster parents are free to devote all of their care to the young cuckoo. Frequently this is an awesome task, since the cuckoo chick often grows much larger than the host adults long before it can care for itself. One of the tragicomic scenes in nature is a pair of small foster parents working like Sisyphus to keep up with the voracious appetite of an outsized young cuckoo.
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.