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Posted on 01/05/2012 2:46:10 AM PST by South40
An unpleasant new report claims that many hospitals in major metro areas are struggling with the growing problem of “permanent patients.”
What’s a “permanent patient”? According to the New York Times they are mostly illegal immigrants or people who lack insurance or their own housing that the hospital cannot turn away.
((snip))
The fact of the matter is that hospitals in metro areas that host a large illegal immigrant population are unable to turn away patients who have neither insurance nor proof that they are in the United States legally– two things necessary for discharge purposes and reimbursements, said Chui Man Lai, assistant vice president of patient services at a New York state hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
that's why eventually the govt will take over all hospitals....all the hospitals will be bankrupted..
that's why eventually the govt will take over all hospitals....all the hospitals will be bankrupted..
you pay not only income taxes, but SS and Medicare taxes....thinking that you'll get SS and Medicare when its your turn...
but surprise....there is no SS or Medicare for you....those who never worked or paid taxes are just going to take it all....
this is why I'm against illegals....they don't participate in paying for our system but take all the advantages...
I’m not surprised; by our PREVIOUS governor’s own admission, NJ lost population without factoring in illegal aliens. States are aiding & abetting them to avoid ghost towns; any city in NJ is proof.
I took my wife to the hospital one night a couple of years ago because she was feeling very crappy very quickly; we waited so long (in a sea of apparent illegals) that she felt better after a few hours and we left. Because we had registered when we went in, they sent us a bill; she hadn’t been seen by a doctor, so the bill has never been paid.
I’m going to venture a guess that none of the hospital’s other bills for that night were ever paid, either.
The government doesn’t want them, either; they are massive drains of funds at a time when you can’t squeeze any more out of the taxpayers (individual or corporate). Eventually our healthcare system will be a chain of First Care clinics; they don’t have beds for people to settle down in for a few years or so.
Agreed, lots cheaper to dump 'em over the border than to keep housing and treating them here.
Not necessarily. The federal government is subsidizing hospitals to assist in the overwhelming cost of treating both ILLEGALs and others who can't or don't pay. In your case I wouldn't have paid either.
I had a similar event. I have used power tools all my life. I've used most every type of power saw imaginable. So how ironic is it that I nearly cut the index finger off of my right hand with a razor knife? The knife was defective allowing the blade to penetrate through the two halves of the handle cutting into my finger and stripping skin and tissue off similar to how you would strip the insulation from a copper wire. I went to the closest ER where they told me they did not accept my insurance. They suggested I go to the other now closed ER a few miles away. But before they let me go they wanted a doctor to see me. I told them I was leaving so they brought the dr in right away. He looked at my injury and determined it was non-life threatening and said I could go. I realized they were just covering their butt legally by having him look me over when they asked me to sign a paper saying I was leaving of my own will. I walked out. About 60 days later I received a bill which I didn't pay. They refused treatment, I refused payment. I never heard from them again.
That’s absurd (and infuriating); did they pursue the bill? In our case I called them as soon as I got it, told them my wife hadn’t been treated, and it wouldn’t be paid; we never heard from them again.
The “charity care” reimbursement eventually doomed north Jersey’s hospitals because basically the state was continually cutting the amounts of reimbursement paid to the hospitals for such care; the state had become the main “client”, and as the payments were reduced the hospitals starting losing millions. Many closed, and those that are still open are jammed with illegals using the ER as “doctor visits” (since they can’t refuse to “stabilize” a person). Some friends were constantly getting hospital bills in their mail with various Spanish names; they were on a main street, and as near as they could figure the address was simply being written on some forms somewhere as the illegals were seeking treatment. The post office couldn’t stop them, but nobody was seeking to collect them, either - they were simply fictitious info (that would never be paid).
One way some got around this was by simply closing their emergency rooms; they still do all kinds of procedures there, but you bet every person walking in has an appointment (and legal residency, and means to pay, etc.). Those places are filled with Americans.
They did not pursue the bill. Ironically, I am now with that healthcare provider and they have never mentioned the incident. It wouldn’t matter if they did. As I said, they didn’t treat me and only had a dr see me to relieve themselves of liability. No treatment = no money due.
“As I said, they didn’t treat me and only had a dr see me to relieve themselves of liability. No treatment = no money due.”
I don’t think the doctor was to relieve them of responsibility as much as to generate a bill; his “releasing” you doesn’t necessarily absolve him of anything (though it might work for the hospital itself).
I think that as angry as Americans are now, they will be even more so when they realize the permanence of our reduced “services” (especially here in the northeast); our taxes & tolls continue rising, while roads remain unrepaired and the rest of our infrastructure ages. Just as we’ve had successive generations of our permanent underclass, we also have successive generations of public employees completely unprepared for life in the private sector (or the unemployment line). Here in NJ we won’t be hiring cops, firemen, and teachers in any meaningful numbers for years to come, and those that prepared for those jobs have to look elsewhere, as that preparation/education leave them capable of doing little else for a living wage (in a high-cost part of the country where companies & American taxpayers are fleeing).
Life in San Diego County ain't all bad. Certainly living so close to the Mexican border isn't the best part of it. I'm actually surprised to hear the problems we have here are happening in states like NJ.
btw...I love Northern NJ. I have family in Vernon Twp. It's quite the contrast from what I have here in East San Diego County, aka, northern Tijuana. They have black bears traversing through their yards. We have ILLEGAL aliens.
Vernon is in the “American quarter” in NJ; beautiful country. I live in the “International Quarter” (people from literally everywhere, though mostly Asians & Hispanics) directly between Newark & Jersey City. Until ten years ago I’d never met a Mexican (though’s we’ve had South & Central Americans here for decades); now they’re all over. NJ and NY both have a lot of the same problems California has, for the same reasons: If you tax nad regulate people & companies out the wazoo, they leave for a better business/tax climate; if the only way to prevent the complete abandonment of the state is to actively attract illegals, throwing out any laws in the process, then so be it. They thought that would keep at least the gubmint workers on the job, though now they’re realizing there is no tax base in illegals. Working under the table generates no income tax, and living in illegal apartments generates no property tax; it just makes life unbearable for the remaining Americans. This place now looks a lot like the places these illegals fled from.
*poof* Your wish has been granted!
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