Posted on 05/03/2008 7:07:59 AM PDT by kellynla
It is this reporter’s opinion that, after covering the invasion by illegal aliens over the past 40 years, it is difficult to find a story such as that related by Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times concerning illegal alien Ana Puente.
“Ana was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care,” said Gorman.
The child underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a small child in 1989, and a third in 1998 — all totally paid for by the state of California.
Now it is reported that Puente has turned 21 and is due for another transplant. But she has aged out of her state-funded health insurance and is unable to continue to receive treatment at UCLA.
Her liver is failing again with her clinical course irreversible. Now we learn of a little-known option for a patient with certain healthcare needs such as hers.
Gorman says that if Puente notifies U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services that she is in the country illegally, state health officials may grant her full Medi-Cal coverage.
Puente has done so and has had her benefits restored. She currently awaits a fourth transplant at UCLA.
Puente shrugs this off saying UCLA should take care of her for the rest of her life, “because I’ve been there since I was a baby.”
With examples such as this, is it any wonder America faces financial bankruptcy with hospitals all over the nation closing while hardworking taxpayers pick up the cost?
Should illegals be the recipient of expensive transplant surgery? The tremendous cost of transplant surgery such as a liver transplant amounts to one-half million dollars, with additional post operative medical care, including the cost of anti-rejection medications, costing an estimate $30,000 annually.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
ping
So in other words, 2 legal US citizens were denied liver transplants so that an illegal could get them twice. Wonderful!
Oh, and the aunt ought to be shot.
Cradle to grave mentally.
I may just have to spend my retirement in another state...
Judges make these decisions everyday. If you are illegal your only right is a ride to the nearest border.IMHO
This is near and dear to my heart since I work for a hospital who recently had to "downsize" about 10% of the workforce mostly because we are hemorrhaging money treating illegals. The ER is their primary care physician and they sit there and demand their free care. We are also a trauma center. They are in gangs and shoot each other, slice and dice each other and drive drunk and under the influence of drugs with devastating consequences in terms of the cost of treating their injuries. Of course none of them are insured -- the Mexican drug cartel doesn't offer group coverage. The Mexican consulate refuses to accept responsibility for their care.
Hey, I bet we could afford it if we cut off all the foreign aid we send to their corrupt govts.
That is sarc, by the way. Or half sarc. Actually I am in favor of ending foreign aid and free medical care paid for by the taxpayers.
That is crazy that immigration status is not a factor. We have plenty of legal citizens of lesser means who are in need of transplants. Their health should not be risked simply because an illegal is "more ill." If anything, such illegals should be deported quickly so that they do not burden our healthcare system with their problems.
I do not believe ourselves to be so callous to allow someone to die simply because they are here illegally.
I am and I would. I find it disgusting that legal Americans who cannot buy their way to the front of the transplant list are being booted because some illegal was able to jump the line. As far as I am concerned, should any legal American of lesser means die because an illegal received taxpayer-provided healthcare, then the government that approved that decision has blood on its hands.
If anything, illegals knowing full well that they would not have any access to taxpayer-provided healthcare would serve as another disincentive for them to come here illegally.
Not even God makes such decisions.
Unfortunately, we do not have the power of God. But that doesn't change the fact that the countries from which these people came need to take more responsibility to provide their citizens with access to healthcare, instead of burdening us with the responsibility of dealing with the healthcare needs of the entire planet.
Here's the conundrum here: would you take the decision in denying this girl the transplant?
I would deny the transplant, in a heartbeat, and have the person deported in the next heartbeat. It is a very easy decision for me to make. There are legal citizens who need healthcare. But I do have a heart. If someone was willing to pay the costs of healthcare out of their own pocket, then someone who came here illegally should be considered for a temporary medical visa so that he or she can get the services they need.
Although I understand your compassion, you probably don't understand mine. If it is so noble to save the dying children of the world, then those suffering babes should be airlifted from Africa, South America, Asia and Canada, at your state's expense, and brought to your state's hospitals for proper care before they die.
This is just the ad absurdium extension of the compassion that, while truly humane, disregards the rationale for establishing a culture, community and government that is responsible to CITIZENS, those who have built that social construct for the betterment of its members. Charity, then, becomes the responsiblity of those individual citizens, at whatever measure they individually feel disposed, rather than the government whose first and ONLY responsibility is to its citizenry.
You avoid these kinds of conundrums by making it a policy that illegals are returned to their country without exception.
There are millions of people worldwide who suffer from fatal illnesses—do we provide for all? Or do we treat someone differently because she lives in a country next door and can be smuggled into this country with little effort? If we are concerned with equity among all the people of the world, where is the “fairness” in simple geographic consaguinity?
If there is a moral problem with this, then the answer is to find private charitable funding before the patient arrives for treatment.
Great comment!
Let her go back to Mexico and get her transplant there. She is a citizen of Mexico and is their responsibility. This is a no-brainer. No illegal should receive hospital care at the expense of US citizens.
...damn....and I am trying to scrap together enough money to pay to treat my prostate cancer...just damn...
I'm sure there are many US citizens in life and death situations that are bound by the restrictions of healh insurance and DO end up dying because they cannot come up with the $$$ for their treatment.
Yes, Exactly...the hospital should contact the Mexican Gov to request payment for the procedure. If they refuse, it is their problem.
This is a dilemma, but that is where the rule of law makes it easier. Her own Nation can support her. She should not be here in the first place. If laws were enforced, we wouldn’t be having this discussion....
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