L.A.'s critical condition - L.A. County's uninsured are overwhelming emergency rooms

SJ Mercury News ^ | 2/26/03 | Barbara Feder Ostrov

[NormsRevenge]

It's a routine day at Los Angeles County's Harbor-UCLA Medical Center's emergency room: By 3 p.m., every bed is filled. The waiting room is packed with an additional 60 patients. An elderly man on crutches says dejectedly that he's been waiting 17 hours to see a doctor.

[NormsRevenge]

Not a peep if undocumenteds are contributing to this situation.

The Merc has been running a series this week about the state of things.

SPECIAL REPORT

L.A.'s critical condition
The needs of Los Angeles County's uninsured are overwhelming emergency rooms, forcing them to routinely turn away patients needing urgent care. Could this be the future of all of California?

RELATED LINKS:

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	Part 2: Patients fear rising costs
	Part 3: Feeling the pain of drug costs
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[Redcloak]

Why spend money on insurance when the County will happily pay your bills?

[balrog666]

Not one mention of illegal aliens? This "reporter" and his "editor" should both be fired.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Only someone ACTIVELY avoiding the issue of illegal aliens could write an article like this on this particular subject and not mention once the role of illegal aliens in the current predicament. How sad that so-called journalist are unable to see past their own agend in order to report the whole truth.

[Mark Felton]

Houston's ER are seriously overcrowded now, and they need one or two more. But at least they have declared that the problem is largely related to illegal aliens.

If you do not have Medicare or Medicaid then you should be able to afford health insurance, or you are in country illegally.

It is time to send all these medical bills to Vincente Fox. Why has nobody thought of this before?

Mexico must be compelled to put a stop to the illegal emmigration, instead of being complicit in the process.

[monkeywrench]

The border states had nearly 190 million in unpaid hospital bills due to illegals. The writer really needed to factor them into this.

[lady lawyer]

My guess is that if you got rid of all the illegals, the emergency room personnel would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs. That HAS to be the main problem. And, they'll get all this care for free.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

That high level of care has kept Windley, 52, alive. She has survived three heart attacks and five cases of congestive heart failure, the last occurring when her best friend was shot on Windley's porch.

Unable to exercise because of her weakened heart, she suffers from obesity as well as arthritis, pre-diabetes, hypertension, sinus infections and a persistent depression she doesn't like to talk about.

Her husband, Sam, also battles pre-diabetes, as well as high cholesterol, sleep apnea and a mysterious infection in his large intestine. Neither can work because of their health.

"Some people should die. That's just unconscious knowledge." - Janes Addiction Pigs in Zen from Nothing's Shocking

[Jhensy]

ENFORCE THE FREAKIN' BORDERS! HEL-LO?!! McFLY??!!

[mrustow]

Not one mention of illegal aliens? This "reporter" and his "editor" should both be fired.

Shhh! You're not permitted to mention that, and at the rate things are going, you may soon be liable to arrest for such statements.

[Paladin2b]

Look, I don't want to minimize the illegal immigrant part of this equation, but suggesting that without them these LA ER docs would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs is ridiculous. My guess is we'd still be talking about the problem. Plenty of malingerers and free-lunch types within our own underclass, white and black.

The biggest lie that Hillary & Co. tried to pull back in 1993-4 when they tried to "reform" health care was to insist that health care costs for the uninsured poor would simply extrapolate from the costs to care for the middle class. BUT THEY DON'T...poor people get sicker or claim to be sicker A LOT MORE than middle class folks, mostly because, as this article manages to say at one point, they indulge in some really unhealthy behavior and don't bother to reform their lives.

The more I see, the more I realize the old Puritans were right: earthly poverty is as much a sign of moral failing as it is a consequence of circumstances beyond one's control.

[mrustow]

Look, I don't want to minimize the illegal immigrant part of this equation, but suggesting that without them these LA ER docs would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs is ridiculous. My guess is we'd still be talking about the problem. Plenty of malingerers and free-lunch types within our own underclass, white and black.

The problem with "diversion," the shutting down of clinics, and the need to raise taxes is due entirely to the explosion in illegal immigrants, who make up 50% or more of the "uninsured." You've got people who shouldn't even be here, filling up emergency rooms when they catch a cold, and keeping out working stiffs suffering from life-threatening illnesses. I'm sure Americans have died because of this.

In Coloring the News William McGowan discusses at length the illegal problem, its destructive effect on health care in California, and the media's refusal to report on it.

[Fedupwithit]

The shock of that convergence, combined with a severe budget deficit in Los Angeles County, has pushed the health care system here to the edge. The financial collapse has already forced the closing of two of the county's six public hospitals and 16 of its 40 health clinics. A move to shut down two other hospitals -- including Harbor-UCLA -- galvanized Los Angeles voters in November to approve a rare property tax increase. For now, the two hospitals are saved.

How about just enforcing the laws of the country and STOP LETTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RUN THE BORDER!!

..its convenient that they are classified in this story as "not having any insurance"...they don't have a green card either.

[janetgreen]

This article is typical in California, with not ONE WORD about the real reason for this hospital crisis. ILLEGAL ALIENS who are using up all our social services, paid for by California taxpayers, under force.

[rimmont]

In roughly one short generation, Los Angeles County has been

converted from a vast and largely prosperous area with a solidly

middle class population, to a gigantic barrio/ghetto populated by

millions of working poor and non-working destitute people with

a much smaller number of middle class and wealthy people on the periphery.

This county is the first large population center in America to be

consumed and destroyed by illegal immigration.

[Amerigomag]

Look, I don't want to minimize the illegal immigrant part of this equation, but suggesting that without them these LA ER docs would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs is ridiculous.

Please make an attempt to investigate the readily available statistics before making these zany pronouncements.

I am troubled. You are probably paticipating in this forum because you are interested in controlling your own destiny and are at a minimum either a social or fiscal conservative.

As such you have a responsibilty to at least review the facts in the face of your feelings.

The facts are these: California's social saftey nets; public education, public health, public saftey, and public largess are increasingly being consumed by the consequences of unregulated immigration into California since WWII.

Today, the unregulated immigrant and his progeny, over three generations, are the clear majority in the public schools, the largest consumer of public health services, constitute the major headache for law enforcement because of organized gang activity, are overwhelming the courts and the penal system through organized gang involvement in narcotics. They represent over 70% of the expenditures for social welfare programs if educational aspects are included.

Please get the facts and then come back and join the discussion.

[janetgreen]

I just sent Ms. Feder-Ostrov an e-mail, asking her why she and others of her ilk won't tell the truth.

[NormsRevenge]

And for that, I, and many others Thank You.

[Kuksool]

This article makes my blood boil. Liberals advocate open borders, then complain about a lack of funding for health care and education. The far left is using uncontrolled immigration to promote increased funding for public education and universal health care.