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Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Passed late last year in Congress, signed by POTUS in February 2006, takes effect July, 1, 2006.

I have just finished reading the act. Medicaid is administered by the states. All the Act says is that the states can put limitations on the the use of Medicaid. I don't think states like CA or AZ would ever try to exclude illegal immigrants from Medicaid.

When she got there, she was placed on a gurney and left to wait. Finally, she was able to ask an orderly why she wasn't being seen. He gestured to all those waiting, some with obvious injuries, heart attacks, etc, and said:"This is the way it is now."

I have been to the ER several times over the past few years in Northern VA. The orderly is right, that's the way it is. The ERs are filled with immigrants who get free medical care. The hospitals require US citizens to prove they have insurance and even ask for a credit card to charge $100 up front.

If the hospitals along the border are closing down, it is difficult to understand how people with minor problems can still use them as clinics.

LOL. I guess that also applies to US citizens who live on the border as well. The illegal immigrant problem is not confined to the border states. It is spreading throughout the country. The closure of ERs hurts Americans as well as illegal immigrants.

The Spanish language TV stations, according to posts here back before the illegal marches, were telling the Mexicans that this was about to be enacted. This is part of the reason they were marching for immediate citizenship. As I understand it, the state Medicaid programs are somewhat privatized, run by the states, but financed in large part by the feds.

I know some American families who spent time on BadgerCare, the Wisconsin state Medicaid. I have seen some of the letters they received and some of the bills. Over the past year, Medicaid has cracked down hard even on citizens on disability who worked part time under the allowed number of hours/income line. These are people who must see an MD once a month or so, due to chronic, severe conditions that are held in check by constant treatment with prescription drugs and medical appliances. When their kids reached 17--19, depending on whether they were in college or not, the parents began receiving bills if they exceeded the income allowed. Sometimes, the amounts demanded were almost equal to the amounts received under disability.

This is a very liberal Democrat-run state. If it is happening here, it is going to happen elsewhere. I am sure that various groups will sue the states to allow free Medicaid to illegals, but I am not as certain they will succeed. If the hospitals are overrun or shut down or in triage mode, how can anyone get blood from a stone?

I see some value in allowing the use of the ER in case someone has a communicable disease.

I had to go to the ER last year. My condition was minor, but it was a Sunday and even the walk-in clinic was closed. The place was empty, even though we have a large population of Medicaid clients, most of them Americans, and a small population of illegals about 20 miles from here.I do not have comprehensive insurance. No one asked for a credit card or any money. I just stated that I was a self pay. I received a bill for $279 for having been seen, getting a dx and a script that I had to fill at a pharmacy.

I have med staff friends and they have told me that the frequent flyers have diminished in the past year or so. The ER is set up so that the waiting area is separated from the treatment area by a locked door. You have to be buzzed in. There are perhaps 6 chairs in the tiny waiting area, which is under observation by the staff in the ER. Our local hospital is gradually being taken over by the mega hospital corporation that controls this part of state. They are not nearly as accommodating as when our hospital was small and privately owned.

Of course, I can't speak for other areas and I read all the time that urban hospitals are overrun and border hospitals are shutting down. People are also leaving medicine and not encouraging their kids to enter the field. If I was an illegal and had to utilize the ER as a clinic, I can see where I would if something serious happened. I see a public health benefit to Well Baby clinics as well as some sort of mechanism to keep contagious disease contained. However, it just doesn't seem that welcoming for minor complaints. I have had MDs and RNs tell me horror stories about urban ERs, drug addicts, gang shoot outs, etc. I wouldn't work in those conditions and neither do most of the med staff who have a choice. The ones who do are burned out quickly.

Look, I am just trying to interject a bit of reality here. I do not see the situation escalating to the point where every hospital is overrun by indigents of whatever citizenship. There are not infinite human or monetary resources. This is why the tax cuts and incremental privatizations were so important. Combined with medical procedures like triage, they are at least containing a portion of the problem.

Just like the school situation, there comes a point where there is no money, no infrastructure and no staff.