Study: Illegal immigrant health care costly

USA TODAY ^ | September 27, 2002 | Julia Malone

[Stand Watch Listen]

Washington --- Communities along the nation's Southwest border are spending more than $200 million a year to provide health care for illegal immigrants, according to a report released Thursday.

The report, based on a survey of hospitals, provides the most detailed estimates yet of an expense that officials say is straining hospitals and forcing some to shut down emergency and trauma services. The study was conducted by the Border Counties Coalition, representing the 24 U.S. counties that touch Mexico.

The losses are ''staggering,'' said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who obtained federal funds for the study as part of his campaign to win federal reimbursement for the 17 states with the most illegal residents. The findings ''were even worse than we thought,'' Kyl said.

Under federal law, hospitals are required to provide emergency care for anyone who seeks it, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. The mandate hits hardest in the 24 border counties of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California that were the focus of the study.

Among the findings:

> About 25 percent of the unreimbursed health services in these border areas goes to persons who lack legal status.

> Emergency hospital care for illegal immigrants in 2000 was costliest for the counties in California, where the total was $79.6 million. Texas was next at $74 million, followed by Arizona at $30 million and New Mexico at nearly $6 million.

Ambulance providers incurred an additional $13 million in the four states, the study estimated.

> The majority of the cases involved illegal residents who live and work in the United States but who lack health insurance or the ability to pay for medical treatment.

> About 10 percent of the costs can be traced to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization, which sends emergency cases to the hospitals and leaves the local communities to pick up the tab.

> About 30 percent of the unreimbursed costs were for child births, either for illegal residents already living in the United States or for women who cross the border just as they are about to give birth.

Pregnant women seeking to have their babies born as American citizens ''sometimes arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border shortly before delivery and are rushed to the emergency room for the birth,'' the study said, citing New Mexico and California hospital officials.

Such cases are rarer in Texas, the study found, although hospitals there reported that women ''did sometimes walk across the border so that their children could be born in the United States.''

The study's author, Robin Herskowitz of the Austin, Texas, firm MGT of America Inc., said Thursday that the most startling incident was reported by hospital officials in Imperial County, Calif.

Officials there said a bus loaded with pregnant women had pulled up to the border crossing three years ago and waited while the women, one by one, went into labor and then crossed the border to seek emergency care.

U.S. border officials have a policy of allowing temporary entry for medical emergencies.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) said entry for medical emergency has become another loophole at the U.S. borders. INS officials do not track those patients or make certain they leave the United States when they are released from the hospital, he said.

Kolbe said his advice to would-be terrorists is to ''get injured,'' enter a U.S. hospital for treatment and then ''go on your merry way.''

An INS official confirmed that injured persons are allowed emergency entry and that port authorities are responsible for making sure that they leave the country after treatment.

[Alberta's Child]

The losses are ''staggering,'' said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who obtained federal funds for the study as part of his campaign to win federal reimbursement for the 17 states with the most illegal residents.

With all due respect to Senator Kyle, I think he's an @sshole. He really shows his stripes here, doesn't he? He doesn't want to do anything about the illegal aliens that live in his state -- he just wants to get some federal dollars in there to prop up those hospitals.

[IYAS9YAS]

We need to change the "Born in America, so you're now an American" law to state that if your parents are here illegally, you are not a citizen upon your birth here.

[Digger]

Kyle can not do anything but what he says. Why? Because he is controlled by the elites that run this "Two-Party Cartel". Is anyone seeing this charade. Does it matter if 99% of us disagree. No it doesn't. Only until you start voting outside of this corrupt fiefdom will YOU ever be represented. Why does 500 congress people not carry out the will of the people with only 5 that do? Because they are "bought & paid for" whores & you keep electing them back. Amazing!

[SCalGal]

Exactly how is Kyl going to "do something" about the illegal aliens in AZ, when the federal government refuses to even address the issue? Except, of course, as another amnesty.

[Alberta's Child]

Kyl can stand up tomorrow on the floor of the U.S. Senate and publicly call for the U.S. government to "address the issue." As a member of the U.S. Senate, Kyl is part of the very government that "refuses to address the issue."

[Capriole]

I don't know anything about Senator Kyle and don't know if he is, as you say, an anorectal apperture. I do know from my own work in this field that he is correct in saying that the costs to hospitals in California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, etc. are absolutely staggering. When you look at the medical records of these hospitals you see that these people come in to the ER for free medical care every time they get a runny nose, run up thousands of dollars worth of medical expenses, take up the time of the ER staff, and walk away. Medicare and Medicaid pay the hospital about 15 cents on the dollar; the hospital eats the rest, which is why you and your private insurance company pay $6 for a Tylenol next time you have to go in to the hospital. And your insurance company jacks up your rates, too. One way or another you're paying for the illegals. We should have the equivalent of an Iron Curtain across the southern border of this country instead of a sieve, just to protect ourselves.

[Alberta's Child]

We should have the equivalent of an Iron Curtain across the southern border of this country instead of a sieve, just to protect ourselves.

Fine. Then Kyl should be calling for an Iron Curtain across the southern border of this country instead of demanding federal assistance for states with a lot of illegal aliens.

He'd rather have the federal dollars than a solution to the problem -- that's why I called him an @sshole.

[SCalGal]

At least Kyl is trying to do something for his own state.

You're right, he should stand up in the senate and say something about the illegals. They all should.

[ikka]

If they found $200 million in costs just for hospitals in the border areas, that means that total amount across the USA must be in the BILLIONS of dollars.

Not including increased crime, increased school costs, etc.

Thus a conservative estimate would put the costs of illegals at about 10-15 billion, not including lost taxes since illegals don't pay taxes.

[SCalGal]

He'd rather have the federal dollars than a solution to the problem --

Maybe asking for federal dollars is a step to getting the problem addressed. Kind of a "hit them in the wallet, get their attention" method.

[Alberta's Child]

At least Kyl is trying to do something for his own state.

Not exactly. Kyl is trying to get a piece of my paycheck to provide funding for problems in his own state that would be better addressed tomorrow.

At the very least, Kyl could sponsor legislation that would allow individual states to refuse to provide public services to illegal aliens. Watch how quickly the illegal aliens in Arizona move to Nevada if Arizona decides to get on board that one.

[Black Agnes]

10B huh. Wonder how many taxpayers there are in the US. Kids don't pay, illegals don't pay...wonder how many of us this leaves to divvy up that 10-15b tab annually.

[Alberta's Child]

Maybe asking for federal dollars is a step to getting the problem addressed. Kind of a "hit them in the wallet, get their attention" method.

If we were dealing with a person here instead of a bloated government, you might have a good point. But can you think of any problem that has ever been solved in this manner?

[SCalGal]

It'll help Arizona. Won't solve the problem, true, but AZ needs help, as do the rest of us picking up the tab in the border states.

Los Angeles has closed a large number of the clinics, and our emergency system is in danger of going down, simply because of these costs. Federal money is a stop-gap measure, but something has to be done now .

[Marine Inspector]

BTTT

Marine Inspector

[Marine Inspector]

You obviously don't know much about Senator Kyl.

He's done more to stop the flow of illegals into this country, than almost any other Senator in Washington.

Unfortunately he is but one man out of one hundred, and the odds are stacked against the few that want to get control of the problem.

[Marine Inspector]

Kyl can stand up tomorrow on the floor of the U.S. Senate and publicly call for the U.S. government to "address the issue." As a member of the U.S. Senate, Kyl is part of the very government that "refuses to address the issue."

And he has done so.

[Alberta's Child]

Under federal law, hospitals are required to provide emergency care for anyone who seeks it, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.

I was specifically commenting on Kyl's approach as described in this article, so I'll gladly stand corrected. Instead of trying to force U.S. taxpayers to pay for Arizona's problem, he should be making the obvious case that the federal law described here is a blatant violation of the law against "unfunded mandates" that was passed in 1995 and should therefore be scrapped.

[Marine Inspector]

He can make the case all he wants, but he is outnumbered in the Senate.

IMHO, federal tax dollars should go to the States, if the Federal Government will not do it's job on immigration or any other issue.

Unfortunately, the President wants open borders and has not lifted a finger to control the flow into our southern States and Kyl and the other few Senators that want this problem under control are at odds with the President and the republican party.