Posted on 09/26/2002 8:37:37 AM PDT by FITZ
Undocumented immigrants in El Paso rang up more than $30 million in unpaid medical bills in 2000 -- the second-highest amount for a border county, after San Diego -- according to a study being released today.
The U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, a group of elected officials from 24 border counties in four states, commissioned the study to put pressure on Congress to reimburse border hospitals for providing emergency medical services to undocumented immigrants.
"We've said all along that the federal government should pay for this because it's a federal mandate for hospitals to treat everyone regardless of nationality," said Pete Duarte, Thomason Hospital's chief executive officer. "The crisis became apparent when NAFTA went into effect, and the pull of the border continues to bring more poor immigrants. I have suggested charging a 5-cent toll at the international bridges that would be earmarked for health care at the border. We have talked to everyone who will listen, but there has not been the ethical or moral will to solve this problem."
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who obtained federal money to pay for the study, is scheduled to join coalition members today in Washington to propose legislation to alleviate the financial burden on border hospitals.
Thomason Hospital had $32 million worth of uncompensated medical care in fiscal year 2001, which ended last Sept. 30. That was in addition to $49.7 million worth of charity care for patients the hospital knew upfront could not pay their bills, hospital officials said.
To help offset some of the costs, Thomason is seeking a 12.5 percent property tax increase for the new fiscal year that will begin next month. Property taxes now generate $35 million in revenue for the hospital.
Doña Ana County incurred about $5.5 million in unreimbursed medical care for treating undocumented immigrants in 2000, and Luna County incurred $563,000 for the same period.
Under federal law, hospital emergency centers cannot ask for a patient's immigration status, and they cannot refuse treatment to someone who might be in the country illegally.
MaryAnn Aelmans-Digman, CEO and president of Memorial Hospital in Las Cruces, said the hospital also admits any urgent or emergency patient because "we don't want them to not come and get care."
Memorial Hospital's total uncompensated medical-care bill for 2001 was $32.8 million, which included $11.4 million for charity care.
But "we couldn't tell how much of that is attributable to illegal immigrants," Aelmans-Digman said.
The study by MPT of America, a consulting firm in Florida hired by the coalition, is thought to be the first of its kind in its attempt to quantify the cost of treating undocumented immigrants at border hospitals. It was limited to emergency room services, which are the most commonly sought by undocumented immigrants.
The researchers said reliable data are impossible to obtain because a 1996 federal law prohibits hospitals from asking patients about their immigration status. That law also requires hospitals to treat such patients.
To come up with their cost estimate, researchers used a complicated statistical model, conducted interviews with hospital administrators and surveyed 77 hospitals and 82 emergency medical transportation providers in the four states along the Mexican border.
It found that the cost of treating undocumented immigrants in emergency rooms totaled about $190 million in 2000, and was especially high in El Paso, San Diego and Pima County, Ariz. The amount does not include the cost of ambulance services, emergency room physician fees or follow-up care. Including them would have pushed the cost to more than $300 million, according to the study.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said "the study backs up what my colleagues from other border districts and I have been saying for years with hard data, and will help us all as we continue to address the unique health-care problems we face along the U.S.-Mexican border at a federal level."
The study found that undocumented immigrants arrive at emergency rooms by ambulance, they walk in or they are brought by the Border Patrol, which is part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"Hospital officials were especially frustrated with the INS," the study said. "They told researchers that Border Patrol agents often don't take illegal immigrants into custody to avoid paying for their emergency medical care."
No one at El Paso's Border Patrol office was available for comment Wednesday, and questions were referred to officials in Washington -- who also were unavailable.
The study recommended that Congress set aside money for the INS to cover the costs of emergency medical services stemming from search-and-rescue and law-enforcement activities.
It also recommended finding a way to identify and track individuals' immigration statuses through such methods as the lack of a Social Security number. This would enable an agency such as the INS or Border Patrol to submit federal reimbursement requests.
Robin Herskowitz, who directed the study, said border hospitals, like hospitals elsewhere, are under intense financial pressure due to the growing number of uninsured patients and severe cutbacks in state Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals. But, she said, most hospitals don't have to cope with a high volume of undocumented immigrants.
"By sheer accident of their geography, border hospitals bear a disproportionate share of the cost of treating undocumented immigrants," Herskowitz said.
The study estimates that emergency room services provided to such immigrants represent about 23 percent of all "uncompensated care" at border hospitals. The bulk of uncollected fees come from other patients who can't or won't pay their bills.
Herskowitz said the growing pile of unpaid bills by undocumented immigrants at some hospitals has forced administrators to reduce staff, increase rates and cut back services.
"What people need to think about is that the next time you are driving through a border state and have a medical emergency, the local emergency room could be closed because the hospital cannot afford to keep it open," she said.
It's costing Americans as a whole billions and billions every year! While our so called leaders stand in stone silence, as they watch this invasion of millions......
The real answer is to eliminate the incentives for illegals to break-in to America and to secure our borders rather than shift the cost from the States to the Feds.
It's completely out of control, as our elected representitives stand treasonously silent........
That will be $0.10, please.
Every Hispanic person I ever see has a hammer or some trade tool in his hand. Or, he's out with his family shopping. Hard-working, honorable, industrious people.
I spent the last year living in uptown Charlotte and watched crews of Hispanic laborers build three or four beautiful buildings in that town. I never once saw one sleeping on the street, but I saw plenty with complexions both ligher and darker doing just that.
Tired & Poor: Bankrupt Arguments for Mass, Unskilled Immigration
By Steven A. Camarota National Review September 3, 2001
Sounds like you aren't well traveled either.
Isn't this what they want? We abandon the land and they take it back.
Shut down the damn border!!!!!
"Under federal law, hospital emergency centers cannot ask for a patient's immigration status, and they cannot refuse treatment to someone who might be in the country illegally."
Amendment V, U.S. Constitution,
"...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
Art I, Sec 8, Cl 17, U.S. Constitution,
Powers of Congress
"To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over...all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings"
The federal law requiring hospitals to accept non-paying immigrants is unconstitutional without a corresponding tax to fund the compensation the hospital's deserve for using their public property for public use and without the federales securing proper jurisdiction.
But what is really baffling is why the hospital's do not fight this federal law in court as unconstitutional.
The price of that litigation would be a heck of a lot less than the $30 million in uncompensated services that the hospital's have incurred?
So what is really going on?
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