|
Should Hospitals Snitch?
|
View this Thread in Original format
| anuneventrade |
| quote: | A California congressman pushes for reporting of illegal aliens receiving medical care
Republican House Leaders scrambled in the wee hours of Nov. 22 in an effort to get last-minute G.O.P. holdouts to pass President Bush's Medicare-reform bill.
They succeeded, but now even some allies of the bill are upset at the dealmaking that enabled it to happen. The American Hospital Association (A.H.A.), an important supporter of the bill, is furious about a last-minute agreement Speaker Dennis Hastert struck to get California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's yes vote.
Hastert promised a vote next year on a bill Rohrabacher plans to introduce that would require hospitals treating illegal aliens to report them to authorities for deportation.
The Medicare legislation reimburses hospitals for the $1.45 billion they spend annually caring for illegal immigrants who can't pay. That's "a huge drain of our resources," complains Rohrabacher, whose Southern California district has a high number of illegals.
Diverting money from "the American people and legal residents in order to provide a health-care system for people who come here illegally is the most stupid thing I can think of."
But Rohrabacher's solution is "a really bad idea," complains A.H.A. executive vice president Richard Pollack. "The mission of hospitals is to take care of people, not to patrol borders."
Under current law, doctors and nurses would not violate patient confidentiality by reporting illegal aliens. But such a policy would scare off those patients, says Pollack, and that could have "devastating public-health implications."
If a disease such as SARS or AIDS were to go "untreated in any individual, regardless of immigration status, that can affect everybody." The bill could also alienate Hispanic Americans, a group Republicans will be courting for next year's elections. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week sent an angry letter to Hastert, demanding that he "rescind" his promise to Rohrabacher.
Hastert, who hasn't taken a position on Rohrabacher's bill, won't do that. "Promising people a vote on other legislation is not unusual," his spokesman, John Feehery, insists. The measure faces uphill battles in the House and Senate. And "we'll fight it," says Pollack. |
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS...s.tm/index.html
How nice... Let me save your life, but there's a catch. I'm going to ship you right back to the country you ran from, okay? |
|
|
| Yoepus |
| well if you give conditions on such things, people when they are sick and so forth are not going to go to a hospital unless it is life threatening. What you are doing is then promoting unsanitary conditions in your state/city, and increase the chance of epdemic, and other contagions to spread. |
|
|
| Shakka |
| My take is this--I can see bits of both sides, but I tend to side with Hastert. If you're not a citizen of a country, then you are not afforded the same rights of the actual citizens. The article says nothing about denying healthcare to illegal aliens, simply that they must be reported. The hospitals still provide care to the sick but with the catch that if it's not a U.S. citizen they must be reported. What is wrong with that? It could open up a scenario where the boarders could potentially be flooded by illegal aliens seeking to take advantage of a better healthcare system. And Hastert is right--it can become a massive drain on our resources if money that is earmarked for citizens is funneled away by people who are not citizens and do not pay taxes here. Again, I can't see a problem. The aliens aren't being denied treatment--which still ends up costing U.S. taxpayers. What's wrong with reporting them? They technically shouldn't be here in the first place, so technically, I wouldn't really have an issue if the hospital flat out denied them help, except that it's not very humanitarian. |
|
|
| NeoPhono |
Hey, if you want to give them healthcare and not hold them accountable as either illegal aliens or for payment for services fine...just don't bitch about American health care being so expensive. That's my take...you want to be nice and "humanitarian" fine, just don't complain when you have to foot the bill.
Peace ouuuuuuuuuuuuuut!!! |
|
|
|
|
