US Hospitals Privately Deporting Immigrants

High in the hills of Guatemala, shut inside the one-room house where he spends day and night on a twin bed beneath a seriously outdated calendar, Luis Alberto Jiménez has no idea of the legal battle that swirls around him in the lowlands of Florida.

Shooing away flies and beaming at the tiny, toothless elderly mother who is his sole caregiver, Mr. Jiménez, a knit cap pulled tightly on his head, remains cheerily oblivious that he has come to represent the collision of two deeply flawed American systems, immigration and health care.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[iamvalid]

Please read this article for a view from the American side of this issue.

http://digg.com/world_news/Matthew_Bumpus_just_died_for_a_Government_that_abandoned_him

Kind if makes you want to cry.

[boycottrightwingthings]

I know of quite a few hospitals in my state that had to close, due to the influx and burden of illegals requiring care that they cannot pay for. I feel bad on a human level for some of the people in the article, but one has to wonder how their problems have anything to do with us, as they were here illegally. They burden our health care system and take away from our legal, American born citizens, who also have to pay for the illegals care when they can't in many cases, afford health care themselves! Many are senior citizens who can't travel to find another hospital once theirs has closed. Where is the sympathy for these AMERICAN born people? We all have to pay for these people who aren't citizens. I have an idea: Are they Catholics who go to the Catholic Churches? Catholics want them here, in some cases hiding illegals who are being investigated for deportation. Catholics have Catholic Hospitals, let them foot these bills. You will see how fast they change their minds about harboring illegals!

[clr2]

One of the reasons our health care system is in such a mess is because millions of ILLEGAL ALIENS are here and want to get treatment without paying. These people need to be deported by the US government. Those who hire ILLEGALS should be heavily fined and jailed.
The hospital in question is out millions of dollars. This man should never have been in Florida to begin with.

[Hirnlego]

Nonsense. There are plenty of countries with large amounts of immigration who on top of that live on welfare for many years before they get integrated into the society yet the system is still not such a mess.

The answer lies in this quote:

Ehrlichman : "We have now narrowed down the vice president's problems on this thing to one issue, and that is whether we should include these Health Maintenance Organizations like Edgar Kaiser's Permenente thing." President Nixon : "Let me ask you, you know I'm not too keen on any of these damn medical programs." Ehrlichman : " This is a private enterprise one." Nixon : "Well, that appeals to me." Ehrlichman : " Edgar Kaiser is running this permanente thing for profit. And the reason he can do it... I had Edgar Kaiser come in, and talk to me about this... And I went into some depth... All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make." Nixon : "Fine." Ehrlichman : " And the incentives run the right way." Nixon : "Not bad."

It's cheaper to sell people "the american dream". This way many poor people are only temporarily poor, they're possible future millionaires. And if that doesn't help - then use religion as a tool.

[clr2]

hirnlego - We aren't talking about "immigrants" we are talking about ILLEGAL ALIENS. These people don't belong here and we shouldn't have to pay for their education, health care, or anything else. They belong in their own countries.

[Eres]

I call BS.

[jemeagirl]

The Healthcare system is a disaster to say the least.

I am lucky enough to have a good job that provides, I thought wonderful healtcare insurance. I am never sick, thank God, so I vist the hospital very rarely until I recently suffered a Sudden Hearing loss. The doctors wanted to make sure that I did not have a brain tumor and ordered an MRI and all these diagnostic testings. The whole thing was over $12,000 of which I am left paying over $1,000 out of my own pocket.

Here is the fun part. I am a single mom of 2 one of which is disabled. i just graduated from law school and have a ton of student loans. I am not working as an attorney yet, cannot find a job as one. I work in a small law firm doing plaintiff work and do not make much money. My loans are in repayment and I have to support my kids. Do I need to say $1,000 is a hardship???? In the meantime, I am scheduled to get a yearly mammogram, but I am scared to go b/c it is going to be another deductible to add to the $1,000 that I already owe.

I think for healthcare alone, we need a democrat in the WH

[CamJam]

I mentioned something along the lines of this as well (one of our 5 year old twin boys was dx'd with Autism last August and instead of authorizing therapy, all our insurance co wants to do is put our non aggressive son on Ritalin) but for whatever reason, they deleted it.

It is hard not to feel sad when reading the full article on this situation, but on the other hand, we can't even afford take care of our own.

We're all just one hospital visit away from bankruptcy...

[truthynesslover]

Unless your illegal apparently.

[Bibbo]

I am a MD so I feel qualified to answere you jemeagirl. A neurologist would be able to pretty much rule out a brain tumor without all the expensive testing you apparently had.No not 100% rule it out but certainly in the very high 90% range. Say 98-99%. A very small lesion could be missed but the MRI could miss it as well. A normal neurological exam tells us with a high degree of accuracy that there is no mass lesion. And we used to practice medicine this way a long time ago but this was before the threat of lawsuits changed everything. If you fall into that tiny group of cases that have a normal neuro exam and the lawyer notes you failed to do every test(not every reasonable test) but every test possible..well you know the rest. Extrapolate this situation to thousands of other like minded medical decisions based on fear of predatory malpractice cases(the famous John Edwards comes to mind) and you have a glimpse into rising health care costs.Oh yes..even initially missing on plain old physical exam(cost about 100$) the small lesion would not likely change the prognosis since subsequent exams (it enlarges) will pick it up in time to adequately treat it with no change in cure rates. None of this matters in court where somebody is looking for a payday.

[FreeThinkn1]

Why wasn't the rehab facility that let him get those horific bed sores so bad the hospital physicians thought he may die from the infections sued or made to pay for his re-hospitalization. What they did was mal-practice--illegal or not he's still a human being.

[kjdwyer]

I got about two-thirds of the way through this article (just as Jimenez is being returned to Guatemala) and I had to stop.

There's not enough room to talk about how illegal immigrants would still be trucked in by the millions by growers and other business interests looking for cheap labor no matter how "tough" we made our immigration policy. How they do the work that Americans don't want to do. How WE ARE UTTERLY DEPENDENT on their services and that we are UTTER AND COMPLETE HYPOCRITES in not providing them with health care, education and other social services.

There's not enough room to address the OUTRAGEOUSLY INFLATED COSTS of health care, created out of whole cloth and sustained by gouging insurance companies and their corporate elite.

There's not enough room to talk about a judge who quotes Voltaire (an acknowledged agnostic), butcher"s the quote and attributes it to St. Thomas Aquinas, then refers to returning "the ward" to his native country.

So let"s just focus on this little nugget, shall we:

MexCare "an alternative choice for the care of the unfunded Latin American nationals"

Do I even need to comment on this? This is one of the most insidious turns of phrase I"ve ever heard. "Alternative choice?" "For the care of?" Puke, puke, vomit, vomit, puke.

If I had no other evidence of just how sick the U.S. has become, this would be enough to send me packing (which, by the way, I"ve already done).

[dezzertguy]

Cool. The US needs those that understand the issues to help the country grow and improve. The less negative, foolishness the better. Thanks and take care.

[andyg]

Bye

[Eres]

Hopefully right behind you soon. My eyes will tear at the sight of *civilization*.

This place is rotting to the core.

[Ohioliberal]

Please let's get away from that dishonest statement of how illegal aliens are "doing the work Americans won't do", if you want to keep it real you should end that statement as such: " illegal aliens are doing the work Americans won't do for substandard wages, dangerous working conditions and no legal workplace protections" - that my friends is the rest of that statement. And because they do, it undermines and discourages American workers the opportunity to work.

[EspressoAtNoon]

Since the Mexican President has so many of his citizens living illegaly in the US perhaps he needs to offer some kind of international health insurance for them, so that the Mexican government can pay for its citizens' healthcare. They export a lot of oil - why would they expect US taxpayers or the US Healthcare industry to provide something to their citizens that isn't even provided to US citizens?

[sunny555]

Sounds like this patient got better care from this hospital than many paying American citizens ever get. While I sympathize with his plight, please, let's take care of our own uninsured citizens first.

[iamvalid]

I look at this and see only people in every corner of the room caring only about their bottom line. With that said, everyone in this country should know that American veterans are turned away from the Veterans Hospitals and clinics on a daily basis. Are they not worthy humans as well?

[morbie5]

The hospital spent 1.5 million on this person which is a cost that gets passed on to the rest of us. Part of the reason health care is so expensive in this country is because of illegal immigration. Even if you have universal health care we would still have issues like this and the cost would be passed on to the tax payer. The US isn't a hotel and this country can't be an ER room for the world.

[Gigantopithecus]

The Hospitals seem to be doing a better job of controlling illegal immigration than the Feds. Have any of the hospital employees considered becoming border patrol agents?

[Scryinglass]

The last thing the INS needs is to hire on people with no regard for the law.

FWI, retrieved from article:

""I don"t want to sound heartless," Ms. Plato Nicosia said. "A community hospital is going to give care. But is it the right thing? We have a lot of American citizens who need our help. We only make about 3 percent over our bottom line if we"re lucky. We need to make capital improvements and do things for our community."

Martin Memorial reported a total margin of 3.6 percent over its bottom line last year and 6 percent in 2006. According to the most recent statewide data, the nonprofit medical center also reported assets of $270.6 million in 2006, with its senior executives earning more than $4 million in salaries and benefits."

Yeah...let's not kid ourselves here. This man's medical care didn't exactly break the bank for this hospital.

[clr2]

The point is we shouldn't have to pay for his medical care. We need to provide health care for our own citizens not ILLEGAL ALIENS.

[Mort]

What country could you and I sneak into illegally and expect them to fork out 2 million in healthcare? Where could we go and demand free anything? And if they got tired of us who would defend us against them? And why should we deserve anything?

[going2ireland]

You are quite right - it IS a shame that their homelands are in such bad shape. But guess where OUR homeland is headed because of the financial drain due to the illegals!!

I can no longer afford to pitch in to pay for these freeloaders. It is all I can do to keep my own head above water.

[TimT]

It always makes us feel good to be able to show sympathy for a victim. And clearly this guy was victimized terribly. But the solutions most here seem to offer, to give this (and all the other) illegal immigrant free medical coverage for the rest of his life, will have unintended consequences.

The fact is that this hospital spent 1.5 million dollars on this person. This hospital has to make a profit or go out of business. So the 1.5 million this hospital paid was money they have to get back somewhere else to stay in business. That means they may cancel an outreach program to help first time mothers or charge far more money for when you or I need surgery.

The solution isn't all that hard -- have a medical system that everyone pays into and everyone gets benefits from, like every other industrialized nation. And at the same time, control our borders -- because having 12 million uninsured coming into our emergency rooms and costing us millions of dollars would mean each of us will continue to pay double what Europeans pay per capita.

We must also realize that health care means balancing painful choices. We can throw money at cutting edge care for those at the end of life. We can try and heal the millions of uninsured third world folks who come -- and we will quickly bankrupt our health care system. Of we can make tough choices and cover everyone in a reasonable way.

[BrettnCalgary]

Although it is irrelevant to the issue under discussion, do keep in mind that the so called 1.5 million is not out of pocket cost. It is the amount they would have invoiced had they had someone to pay. Their direct out of pocket costs are certainly much less, and possibly only a fraction of that amount. From all I've read the US for profit medical system doesn't deny itself high margins.

Single payer universal healthcare is the best way to go.

[riverhouse]

Keep in mind that in national health care systems, the immigration issue is tightly controlled. An illegal would receive basic care but that person would be deported long before a bill of $1.5 mil accrued. The USA has a schizophrenic system of the feds requiring health care for illegals but funding none of it. I favor a national health care system, but there is no place for illegals in such a system.

[Danny]

Yes, single payer universal health care is the way to go. Wonder how France, U.K., Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Morocco , Turkey, Japan, China, etc., deal with such situations? I think I know the answer.

[Ohioliberal]

Being DIRECTLY involved in health care finance your statement is not true. Hospitals operate on forecasted revenue - not actual costs in order to invest in technology, people and facilities. The 1.5million is part of that forecasted revenue that won't be realized and thus the provider will have to make it up somewhere else.

[barriosbabe]

We can have single payer, and plenty of private provider. Just get rid of the damned insurance companies!

[RTIII]

In this instance, fixing the AUTOMOTIVE insurance problems would have done it: There's such a thing as uninsured motorist, and if the victim's vehicle had it, the health care would have been covered...
.

[barriosbabe]

Not necessarily!

[truthynesslover]

How many illegal immigrants have auto insurance do you think?

[going2ireland]

That all sounds well and good. But the illegals tend to have large families. And usually it is only the father that is working, as the mother has to stay home to tend her large brood. Making minimum wage (usually less), just how do you think this man can pay into a socialized health plan for every member of his family? They don't make enough to house and feed their family as it is - they are using the resources available to them through the school districts.

So you plan won't help relieve the financial burden of the hospitals or the tax payers who are having to carry the financial burden for the illegals.

[TimT]

Going2, I haven't suggested socialized medicine. In fact if you actually read my post, you won't find any "plan" there -- just a few basic ideas.

But there are plenty of systems out there that offer coverage for everyone in the country that aren't socialized and yet provide universal coverage.

And I did suggest that we should control our borders. We should also have a system in place that ensures that companies don't hire those here illegally. And we could have companies handle some of the health care costs of their employees as we do now.

The point being that until we tackle the massive number of illegal immigrants it will be tough to fix our health care system (or education, the prisons, etc.).

[Ohioliberal]

I would go further and add that no child born in this country to two illegal parents is a US citizen unless that birth was in 1986 which was the Ronald Reagan amensty law. All children born after the last amensty bill are citizens of their parents country - Next problem?

[missviv]

As the daughter of illiegal immigrants who took your precious path to legal status (which by the way, is not half as easy as those who have never had to do it think), I'm personally insulted by your ignorant claim that mothers in undocumented households do not work. My mother has busted her butt working up to three jobs to support our family alongside my dad who also worked 2-3 jobs. My parents never received handouts, never lived off welfare and never asked for anything from anyone.

I don't think you can do half the hard labor my mother and father have had to. They often went to work even though they felt like crap or were sick just because they didn't want to take anything from you self righteous Americans. You're so full of bs it's disgusting. Walk a week in my parents hardworking shoes.. you won't last.

[truthynesslover]

At least five hospital in los angeles have gone under because of this.The school system is on the verge of collapse{the reason i moved}.I wish we could take care of everyone in the world but we cant.Even with a single payer system its NOT free its payed for by our taxes and since most illegal imimgrants either work under the table or dont make enough per year to pay the taxes required we should fine the companies or people who hire them,let them pay the costs.A sort of a pay to play system.Stop those who most benifit from passing the costs to the taxpayer.this should include everything from medical bills to childhood education.You will see illegals go home very quickly.

[Bibbo]

I'm just fed up with the nonsense and downright dishonesty thats going on. The greatest country the world has ever seen(USA) is being destroyed by itself. When people can re-elect a corrupt congressman from their district because of pork and then whine about dishonesty in govt. I want to throw up.The problem isn't the system,its the voters. I'm a convinced republican in theory but am disgusted with what they have done in the last 10 yrs. Throw Stevens from Alaska out. The mess in health care is but a symptom of the disease of selfishness thats epidemic today. The Clintons...How in the world do they merit being worth 100 million+ dollars. Yet many still admire and support the two of them. I now support the idea of term limits. One term and you are out. No more multimillionaires after 10 yrs of "public service". Its pathetic that a TV commercial can wield so much influence on voters. The entitlement mentality is going to bankrupt us.

[barriosbabe]

Yes!

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

What seems more alarming than the literally apparent issues here is that the hospitals have come to realize the government does not and will not do the government's job of enforcing immigration laws, and thus, to remain operational and hopefully solvent, the hospitals find themselves performing that job for the government. We are perilously close to losing our systems, including those currently providing us our medical care, such as it is.