Posted on 11/09/2008 5:52:11 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
Roughly 2,000 times over the past 17 years, Marguerita Toribio, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, has climbed into a cushioned recliner for the three-hour dialysis treatment that keeps her alive.
She has never seen a bill.
U.S. taxpayers have covered the entire cost of her treatment in California: more than $500,000 and rising, not including a kidney transplant in 1993.
The kidney failed when Toribio briefly moved to North Carolina, which refused to pay for her anti-rejection drugs. She needed to go back on dialysis three days a week to clear toxins from her blood, but North Carolina didn't cover that, either.
The best a social worker could offer was a prepaid plane ticket back to California.
"When I came back here, I said, 'There is no way I'm leaving for another state again,' " said Toribio, now 29, before a technician poked two needles into her arm at the St. Joseph Hospital dialysis center in Orange, Calif.
Health services and other benefits available to illegal immigrants can vary by the state. Welfare, prenatal care or in-state college tuition might be available in one place and inaccessible across a state line.
The disparities reflect the nation's conflicting attitudes toward its estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. With limited federal guidance, states often are left to make their own decisions, frequently shaped by political winds.
-Snip-
The number of patients is not large. In California, illegal immigrants account for about 1,350 of the 61,000 people on dialysis. Their treatment cost taxpayers $51 million last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
The fear in many states is that offering routine dialysis will lure more sick people from other countries.
"We cannot provide dialysis to the world," said Ramiro Valdez, a Dallas social worker and medical consultant. ___________________________________________
Someone is here doing a job...
n your wallet...
PING
Lets hope that conservatives get over the self pity soon enough to fight Obama on immigration like we did Bush.
American families can barely afford to pay for treatment for conditions such as diabetes, yet the politicians say they can afford to pay for the illegals' free health care.
That is just plain wrong.
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Send them all to California. If that state is not a model in support of why Obama’s plan will bankrupt this nation, I don’t know what is.
Best bet is to identify these folks, buy a machine for some center "down home", and give them the choice of going there for treatment or staying here without treatment.
Good reason to not live in California, so moochers from anywhee can sponge off you
The California medical system is funded by California. That's part of the reason California is being bled to death.
I hear Cuba’s healthcare system is a model of perfection. Let them go there
I’m on dialysis three times weekly myself and I can assure folks that there aren’t enough dialysis centers to accommodate any more patients, whether they’re citizens or not. NY State has been awful about granting permission for more centers to be built. In our area there are over 50 who have no regular place to go. They wait for the head dialysis center here to call them daily to let them know where they will go. I thank God I have a spot. Many others don’t.
“The number of patients is not large. In California, illegal immigrants account for about 1,350 of the 61,000 people on dialysis. Their treatment cost taxpayers $51 million last year...”
So 1,350 people mooching off our system, and $51 million per year, is no big deal to this author?
(as I write a $400 check each month for my own health insurance (with no prescription or doctor visit coverage)).
I know someone who is about to go into kidney failure. I've been trying to encourage her to prepare for dialysis but I never even thought about the availability of spots.
$ 51,000,000 / 1,350 = $37,777 each, presumably per year.
I’m sorry for their problem, but that money should go to Americans first unless these immigrant’s country offers to pay the bills.
Cal $16 billion in services to illegals. $18 billion in deficit and no ideas where to cut the budget.
What is wrong with a bus ticket home. The government and the people who support this BS are stupid.
When someone starts out on dialysis, they don’t have the option as to which day and “shift”; they oftentimes are lucky to get IN to a dialysis unit.
I did dialysis from August 2007 until this past May when I got my transplant, and there rarely were times when there were empty chairs in the unit.
Tell your friend that it’s better to plan for dialysis ahead of time; the most IMPORTANT thing to do is to get a fistula ahead of time (surgical connection of an artery and vein which causes the vein to enlarge, allowing the nurse/tech/patient to use it to remove and return blood to the dialysis machine). A fistula takes a few weeks to a few months to “mature”, but it’s the best as far as access sites.
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