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L.A. Emergency Rooms Full of Illegal Immigrants
Thursday, March 17, 2005


LOS ANGELES

Overburdened by the uninsured and overwhelmed by illegal immigration (search), public health care in Los Angeles is on life support.

Sixty percent of the county's uninsured patients are not U.S. citizens. More than half are here illegally. About 2 million undocumented aliens in Los Angeles County alone are crowding emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor.

According to the State Association of Hospitals (search), California's public health system is "on the brink of collapse." In Los Angeles County, patients can wait four days for a hospital bed and up to two years for gallbladder surgery.

"The hospitals are closing because of the totality of the uninsured," said Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the Los Angeles County Health Department (search). "If you're legally a resident in California and you're poor, you have a right to basic services."

But some critics say the taxpayers can't be the HMO (search) to the world. Last year, Los Angeles County spent $340 million to treat the uninsured; that's roughly $1,000 for every taxpayer.

"We're citizens here. Why should somebody from another country that's here illegally get anything that we can't get? I mean that's dumb, that's not right," said Don Schenck, whose son, Bill, is mentally disabled.

Though the Schencks are uninsured, and considered poor by county standards, his father had to find a way to pay for his Bill's care while thousands of others, in the country illegally, get it for free.

"It makes you feel pretty bad when you're born in that country and you're handicapped and you've got a learning disability and you can't get medical," Schenck said.

Mike Antonovich, the Los Angeles County supervisor, said the system has been "basically bankrupted."

The Department of Health has a $1.2 billion deficit. Caring for illegals is siphoning money from other services and forcing clinics, trauma centers and emergency rooms to close, he said.

"We cannot afford to have a open-door policy to encourage illegals to continue to come here and receive all the medical care, because it's too expensive," he said.

Immigrants like Yolanda Hernandez, however, argue that if there were cheap insurance plans available to her community, people would buy them.

"[Americans] have enough money to pay for insurance," she said. "They make good money and are educated. Unfortunately, we are not."

The fourth installment of this series focuses on how border states are dealing with educating Mexican immigrants and the strain it's putting on California's education system.

If they are Mexican, they should bill the IMSS (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social), the national health service for providing their citizens medical care.

I think a more important question should be answered...

"Who is to blame for the high cost of healthcare?"

Quite honestly, insurance and healthcare as an organization (not quality) [censored] sucks in this country.

-J

Lots of jobs around here only pay $6-7 hr and give meager benefits because they have a lot of workers from Mexico with work permits where 7/hr is considered good pay.

Originally posted by WRX Barge:

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They should just turn them away.

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they cant turn them away...sucks but its the messed up law...just did a paper in school about this very thing...interes ting and disturbing topic

Here are a few things to consider:

Illegal immigrants are wiling to do all of the jobs that most Americans are unwilling to do. Who would do the work if they didn't. Lots of work would not get done if illegals stopped working.

Most illegal immigrants are working under false names and social security numbers. These jobs are cutting taxes and paying into social security. They dont get to see lots of this money taken out of their checks.

Turning away illegals from needed medical care does not seem like the right thing to do. I would never turn away a seriously hurt person just because they have no health insurance even if they are illegal. Should they just be allowed to die outside of the hospital or thrown across the border. It would also be cheaper to treat the uninsured and prescribe them any medicine they might need. It is cheaper to see someone with a minor infection and treat it. If you send them away they will only come back later and in need of more intensive and costly medical care.

Although I am all for legal entry into this country, I do believe that illegal immigrants are not just a bunch of people "sucking" the American economy dry. These people work hard to get here, work hard while they are here, and do make significant contibutions to this country. Grant them citizenship.

Many of you won't like what I have to say, but I don't know a single illegal immigrant who doesn't work hard to provide for his family. The immigrants I know aren't mooching off of America. One close friend of mine came to this country as an illegal, worked hard, and went the legal route to get his residency. He later went on to Start a successful business that provided steady jobs for his 100 employees at his two diferent locations. He makes a six figure salary and has made significant contributions to his community.

Well said Randy. I personally don't want to have to pick my own oranges or grapes, or process my garbage. I'm glad someone is willing to do it. And we should just treat them. They can't afford any true medical care. Most of them are probably not coming in for little things. They don't want to be waiting forever in a foreign ER anymore than we do.