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Care costs for undocumented immigrants stack up [illegal aliens]
The Miami Herald ^ | 08/.26/2009 | JOHN DORSCHNER

Posted on 09/04/2009 4:42:08 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch

JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEM

Facing ever-increasing financial losses, Miami-Dade's struggling Jackson Health System has spent $33 million this year alone on caring for undocumented immigrants.

On a quiet street in northwestern Miami, a Jackson nursing home serves 60 undocumented immigrants -- some paralyzed, quite a few on ventilators -- costing Miami-Dade taxpayers about $318 a day per patient.

``There's no way to place them anywhere else,'' says Armand Gonzalez, administrator of the Jackson Memorial Long-Term Care Center.

The cost of their care is part of the reason why the county's public hospital system is struggling with growing financial losses that border on the disastrous. Losses are expected to escalate to $168 million next year because of South Florida's unique problems -- high numbers of uninsured and high healthcare costs that keep increasing the ranks of the uninsured.

On the national level, the issue of undocumented immigrants has become politically explosive.

Some conservatives maintain that federal law, which requires everyone be treated in emergency rooms, has provided an opening for the undocumented who are flooding ERs and driving up the nation's healthcare costs. Many healthcare experts say such claims are exaggerated in most locations. ``The idea that they're imposing a big financial burden on our healthcare system has been distorted,'' says Peter Cunningham, a senior fellow at the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington. National data show that undocumented immigrants are only a small percentage of the uninsured and that ``the problems are highly localized.''

South Florida appears to be a special case. Jackson Chief Executive Eneida Roldan says there is ``a huge void'' in present reform proposals because they do not offer solutions to pay hospitals for their immigrant care costs.MILLIONS IN COSTS

Roldan knows the numbers. Last year, undocumented immigrants visited Jackson 77,415 times, costing the system $38 million in unpaid care. So far this year, 54,858 visits have cost $33 million.

That is less than 10 percent of the $500 million the system spends on charity care each year, but more than half of the $56 million that Jackson expects to lose this fiscal year.

To varying degrees, all hospitals in the region have had to pay for undocumented immigrant care costs. Broward Health, the public system in North Broward, estimates it spent about $16 million last year treating about 12,000 foreign patients who were probably undocumented.

In Miami-Dade, some are poor laborers who never get primary care and end up in the emergency room very sick.

``Our hands in many ways are tied,'' says Jackson spokesman Robert Alonso. ``If you do the bare minimum, you are literally sentencing that patient to death. All the ethical and moral issues are there.''

Jackson has never gone to the lengths of Martin Memorial Center in Stuart, which in 2003 chartered a plane to take Luis Alberto Jimenez back to his native Guatemala. An illegal immigrant, he had cost the hospital more than $1 million after a car accident left him in a coma. The hospital acted while a relative was still battling in court to stop the deportation.

In Jackson's experience, undocumented patients can run from young children needing transplants to the elderly. Last year, 13 percent of them were over 65. Since they do not quality for Medicare, the hospital did not get reimbursed for $4.6 million of their care cost.

NURSING HOMES

For long-term cases, Jackson operates two nursing homes -- one on Northwest 22nd Avenue, about two miles from Jackson Memorial, and the other off Old Cutler Road in South Dade. About two-thirds of these patients are on Medicaid, the federal-state insurer of the poor, and most of the remaining third are undocumented immigrants.

Both facilities lose money, but at $318 a patient a day, they cost the system considerably less than caring for them in the hospital, where charges average $2,000 daily.

Altogether, the two facilities have about 95 undocumented immigrants. In all cases, the patients are there because they need continuing care. Jackson says it can't release any information about them because of privacy laws.

Most government programs do not pay for undocumented immigrants, but under Section 1011 of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, the federal government provided for their care $250 million a year for fiscal years 2005 through 2008. The program was extended to 2009, but there is no provision for next year.

Sandra Johnson at Jackson says Section 1011 funds are strongly stacked toward the West Coast. Only $8 million a year go to Florida, while California gets $70 million, Texas $46 million and Arizona $45 million.

To get some of that money, Jackson submitted 2,908 claims in 2008 for $23.4 million. It was reimbursed $543,621.31.

Jackson officials want Congress to resurrect the program for next year, with much fairer funding for Florida.

Outside the emergency room, Jackson's primary care clinics treat anyone who can prove they are a resident of Miami-Dade -- with an electric bill, child in the school system, or such -- but many immigration experts say those who fear deportation are unlikely to appear at a government facility for basic healthcare. Only when they get truly sick do they show up in ERs.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: California; US: Florida; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: abusethesystem; aliens; corruption; healthcare; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration
"Only $8 million a year go to Florida, while California gets $70 million, Texas $46 million and Arizona $45 million."

A drop in the bucket!

1 posted on 09/04/2009 4:42:08 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch

Oh, don’t get me started. I work at a Texas hospital. The Mexican consulate laughs in our faces when they are asked to take responsibility for their citizens who are here illegally getting free care in American hospitals. Transfer them to Mexico? You can practically hear them going “ha ha ha.” I had to clean this up before I could post.


2 posted on 09/04/2009 4:52:32 PM PDT by McLynnan
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To: SwinneySwitch

Bill Mexico for their care. They aren’t citizens here, they are Mexican citizens.


3 posted on 09/04/2009 4:56:02 PM PDT by pray4liberty (http://aroodawakening.tv)
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To: McLynnan

Don’t tell me, there isn’t a single-payer government-run health care system in Mexico?? /sarc


4 posted on 09/04/2009 4:57:34 PM PDT by pray4liberty (http://aroodawakening.tv)
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To: pray4liberty
Bill Mexico for their care. They aren’t citizens here, they are Mexican citizens.

That would be like billing the Taliban for the cost of the war in Afghanistan

Not likely.

5 posted on 09/04/2009 5:00:19 PM PDT by Prokopton
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To: pray4liberty

Yes, their single payer government run system is called the United States taxpayers! Works quite well for them. It’s deficit neutral.


6 posted on 09/04/2009 5:01:28 PM PDT by McLynnan
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To: McLynnan

And look what California does....cash assistance above the free health care.

Wonder why California is broke??? Senior Illegal aliens!

see post #20


7 posted on 09/04/2009 5:03:20 PM PDT by AuntB (First the government cripples you, then it tries to sell you a crutch!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Illegal aliens not undocumented immigrants. Stupid liberal journalists. Illegal aliens - bankrupting America with endless benefits demanded and provided to illegals.


8 posted on 09/04/2009 5:06:28 PM PDT by Frantzie (Lou Dobbs & Glenn Beck- American Heroes! Bill O'Reilly = Liar)
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To: AuntB

Well not to worry. I saw Geraldo plugging his new book and he says they will lead us to a new era of prosperity. I’m sure all that money will be paid back with interest.


9 posted on 09/04/2009 5:07:22 PM PDT by McLynnan
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To: McLynnan

Sorry, let’s try that again.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2330541/posts


10 posted on 09/04/2009 5:09:38 PM PDT by AuntB (First the government cripples you, then it tries to sell you a crutch!)
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To: SwinneySwitch

I hear their population has actually declined. No doubt those who can are moving out.


11 posted on 09/04/2009 5:33:12 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com)
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To: McLynnan

I had a dream where Mexico put their army on the border to keep Mexicans out. Out of Mexico! How wild would that be??


12 posted on 09/04/2009 5:34:35 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com)
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To: AuntB

Unbelievable, isn’t it? And they think they are entitled to it!


13 posted on 09/04/2009 5:47:16 PM PDT by McLynnan
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To: AuntB
Wonder why California is broke??? Senior Illegal aliens!

Misses the point. Unregulated senior aliens are the tip of the iceberg.

The 400 lb. gorilla that no one wants to address is the abuse of the 14th Amendment by FDR era judicial appointees that allow unregulated aliens to produce citizen progeny on US soil. That abuse has mushroomed into a the largest legal "illegal" plurality the populates California in 2009.

Those progeny of illegal aliens, chiefly Mexican nationals, are currently the largest cultural plurality in the state and will be soon be the majority. Their contribution to the cost of state government is well above any other identifiable class, yet their contribution to California personal income tax revenue is essentially inconsequential.

14 posted on 09/04/2009 6:43:55 PM PDT by Amerigomag
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To: SwinneySwitch
I saw video of a Florida hospital administrator giving testimony to the Florida senate and she related to just 2 cases that cost them over 2 million dollars for illegals. They actually flew on to Mexico at a cost of $30,000 and left him. The Mexican consulate stooped them from exporting the other...
15 posted on 09/04/2009 7:18:56 PM PDT by tubebender (I don't need no stikin Okra...)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Bump


16 posted on 09/04/2009 7:20:59 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: socialismisinsidious


Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care daily digest PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this daily digest ping list.




17 posted on 09/04/2009 8:40:29 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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To: Amerigomag

“Wonder why California is broke??? Senior Illegal aliens!

Misses the point. Unregulated senior aliens are the tip of the iceberg. ........
The 400 lb. gorilla that no one wants to address is the abuse of the 14th Amendment by FDR era judicial appointees that allow unregulated aliens to produce citizen progeny on US soil.””

_________

Didn’t read the first sentence??

“Yes, there are plenty of reasons, and here is just one!”

I agree with the rest of your statement, as we have discussed many times. We are trying right now to gather signatures in California to address that problem.

Californians!
Get On the Bandwagon!
Taxpayer Protection Act of 2010
Get The Petitions Pronto!
http://www.taxpayerrevolution.org/


18 posted on 09/04/2009 9:05:19 PM PDT by AuntB (If the TALIBAN grew drugs on our lands instead of armed Mexican Cartels would anyone notice?)
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To: Prokopton
That would be like billing the Taliban for the cost of the war in Afghanistan

No it is not like that at all.

19 posted on 09/09/2009 6:28:07 PM PDT by Rapscallion (Obama installs a fifth column inside the US Government. Why?)
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