Posted on 06/17/2006 5:01:02 PM PDT by Arnold Zephel
The Harris County Hospital District's unreimbursed costs of caring for illegal immigrants approached $100 million last year, a 77 percent increase in three years.
"The costs are increasing because the population of undocumented immigrants is increasing and the cost of health care is rising," said hospital district spokesman Bryan McLeod.
The unreimbursed costs rose from $55 million in 2002 to $97 million in 2005, the hospital district said in a report released Friday. Last year's figure represented 13 percent of the district's $760 million operating budget.
The district treats about 300,000 patients annually, but lacks enough funds and facilities to care for all of the county's uninsured and underinsured residents, estimated to number between 800,000 and 1.2 million, McLeod said.
Commissioner Steve Radack, who requested the report on the district's costs of treating undocumented immigrants, said county residents are shouldering a burden created by the federal government.
The federal government doesn't prevent illegal immigration, but hardly reimburses local counties where the immigrants most frequently settle and use public health care facilities, he said.
"The federal government allows people to come here illegally," Radack said. "Because of that the cost shouldn't fall on the local taxpayer."
The district treated more than 57,000 illegal immigrants last year, at a cost of $128 million. The federal and state governments reimbursed about $28 million, and the patients themselves paid about $3 million. Over the past 11 years, the district has paid about $607 million in unreimbursed costs for treating undocumented immigrants.
The district does not directly ask patients if they are in the country legally, but infers their status from other information gleaned during patient screenings, officials said.
Radack said it would be inhumane for the hospital district to stop providing treatment to illegal immigrants.
And untreated infectious illnesses among immigrants might spread to the broader population, he said.
"You would create a tremendous health crisis," he said.
Under federal law, emergency rooms are required to treat anyone who shows up and needs immediate care.
Local emergency rooms often are backed up with patients, including many without health insurance who come to the emergency room as a last resort when they need nonemergency care.
Regional health care officials have been strategizing for years on how to move those not needing urgent care to other settings so emergency rooms can treat true emergencies.
McLeod said emergency rooms would become even more overburdened if the district stopped treating illegal immigrants in district clinics and hospitals, and they all started showing up at emergency rooms for nonemergency care.
bill.murphy@chron.com
I am sure this figure doesn't include the children born to illegals, because technically they are citizens.
And many people here in Texas wonder why their property taxes have risen exponentially in the last few years.
Being retired mlitary, when I use Tricare for health insurance. All in all, its awful. They underpay doctors, so almost no one wants to take Tricare patients. On top of that, they will find any justification NOT to reimburse a claim. You wouldn't believe what I go through with those people. At times it seems like they've got marching orders to shortchange the ex-military patients if at all possible. Makes me wonder where all the $$ is going. Hmmm....where could it be?
And many people here in Texas wonder why their property taxes have risen exponentially in the last few years.
Don't miss this thread, TX taxpayers are also funding *FREE* prenatal care for these anchor babies also.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1651241/posts
Don' fret. The fruits and vegetables are cheap so it should all balance out. Remember the price of lettuce is the prevailing factor here. And they are doing jobs that Americans won't do. Yeah! They are doing jobs that employers are not willing to pay Americans to do. When will we get enough?
Americans should stop buying health care and learn to speak Spanish and get it for free.
12 million guesses and the one doesn't count....
should be "and the first one doesn't count"
Probably closer to 25 million.
Not a problem. Simply raise the rates of all procedures so the rest of us can pay for it, massively increase the premiums on our insurance plans, and take huge amounts of our tax monies from local, state and federal treasuries and dump it in to pay for this "free" care.
Oh, wait. They're already doing that. Never mind.
Not if we stopped giving them any non-emergency care without proof of citizenship. Of course, that is too sensible, so we won't ever do it.
susie
This law needs to be repealed except in clear cases where the patient's life is in jeopardy.
They probably blamed the problem on the "greedy" HMOs or physicians or something.
But of course, that's a small price to pay in order for the national GOP to improve its 'ethnic outreach'. Nothing is too much for unimportant Americans to sacrifice, even their unimportant lives. You have to break a few eggs to make an omlette, as VI Lenin was reputed to have said.
There are laws that prevent hospitals from refusing care.
I think it's only emergency care. I could be wrong. And if I am, laws can be changed.
susie
paying for your own healthcare values ends at their border ping!
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