TWIN CRISES: IMMIGRATION AND HOSPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
By Frosty Wooldridge
Every year, an estimated 400,000 to as high as 450,000 pregnant illegal alien women cross America’s borders. Some arrive legally with visas. They rush to the nearest hospital where they birth their ‘jackpot baby’ or more popularly known as an ‘anchor baby’. Once inside the hospital or ER, they receive unlimited ‘free’ care via U.S. taxpayers. Their child, through a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution meant for children of slaves in the 1800s, becomes an instant citizen. Therefore, the mother enjoys immune status for being deported out of the United States. She becomes immediately eligible for assisted housing, food stamps, child care, medical care and more. Since most of them arrive illiterate and without job skills, they become immediate wards of the federal government and local municipalities.
At an average of $8,000.00 per healthy birth to as high as $500,000.00 for premature babies or one that suffers a congenital heart defect or Down’s Syndrome, etc., the costs annually run in excess of $3.2 billion. Later, taxpayers shell out $7,000 to $8,000.00 per year for educating those children K-12. Dan Stein of www.fairus.org estimates anchor babies and other immigrant children cost U.S. taxpayers $7.4 billion annually.
In the meantime, an estimated 20 million illegal aliens may visit any U.S. hospital or ER for ‘free’ service compliments of U.S. taxpayers. The costs run into the tens of billions of dollars annually. Passed in 1986, Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act: mandated by Congress, it allows any illegal alien that needs medical attention to enter any facility without paying and be provided with unlimited medical care. Some individuals have run up millions of dollars of care. In California, 60 hospitals and ERs bankrupted out existence because of EMTALA.
Additionally, every American holding an insurance policy or making a hospital visit on his or her own money must make up the difference.
“The Twin Crises: Immigration and Hospital Infrastructure” by www.thesocialcontract.com, Volume XIX, No.2, pages 33-37, Winter 2009, by Edwin S. Rubenstein—addresses crumbling hospital infrastructure.
“The two local health units that are administered by the Louisiana Department of Health from January through mid-November admitted 1,200 pregnant women, most of whom were Hispanic immigrants,” Rubenstein said. “Before Hurricane Katrina, only two percent were Hispanic; now 96 percent are Hispanic [illegal].”
Through EMTALA, hospitals fight for reimbursement from the federal government, however, the American taxpayer IS the federal government’s money bags. Criminal aliens discover they can game the system and they do in ever increasing numbers.
“Emergency departments are an endangered species,” Rubenstein said. “People die from delays (caused by accelerating illegal alien visits). Autopsies of accident victims who died after reaching EDs in San Diego hospitals suggested that 22 percent of the deaths were preventable. Illegal immigration is a major factor behind the ED emergency. On the demand side, illegal aliens utilize hospital EDs at more than twice the rate of overall U.S. population: 29 percent versus 11 percent. On the supply side, uncompensated illegal alien care is the cause of many ED closures.”
Legal and illegal migrants utilize emergency rooms for a variety of ailments such as hangnails, gunshot wounds, and permanent disability that includes mental, social and personality disorders.
“Drug addiction and alcoholism are among the fastest growing of ‘disabilities’,” Rubenstein said. “A disability diagnosis automatically qualifies illegal aliens for Supplemental Security Income, a federally funded cash transfer payment.”
Additionally, EMTALA straight-jackets any hospital that refuses to serve an illegal alien with fines up to $50,000.00. Immigration lawyers and special interest groups enjoy more authority than doctors.
The costs run into the millions per one illegal alien. Case in point:
“Luis Alberto Jimenez. He worked as a gardener in Stuart, Florida. He suffered a devastating injury in a car crash with a drunken Floridian. Martin Memorial Hospital saved his life, but the crash’s impact on his brain left Jimenez incapacitated. After failing to find a rehabilitation center willing to accept an uninsured patient, the hospital kept him as a ward for years at a cost of $1.5 million. Over time, Jimenez became depressed, exhibited anti-social behavior such as spitting, yelling, kicking and defecating on the floor.
“What happened next set the stage for a continuing legal battle: Martin Memorial leased an air ambulance for $30,000.00 and flew Jimenez back to Guatemala.”
Many hospitals follow the same procedures or face financial insolvency and closure.
However, Rubenstein said, “Martin Memorial is being groomed as a test case by pro-immigration proponents. Perhaps the hospital should sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”
Little known to U.S. taxpayers, EMTALA provides acute care, dialysis, air ambulances, escort services and chemotherapy. Taxpayers foot the bills for broken bones, flu, babies, pre-natal and every kind of ailment brought to medical facilities by legal and illegal migrants.
While the U.S. imports 138,000 new legal immigrants every 30 days, month in and month out, while an estimated 100,000 criminal aliens cross over the borders every month—few hospitals can withstand the onslaught and costs.
The latest PEW report showed Mexican minorities becoming the majority by 2042 with a 53 percent population in the U.S. By that time, our medical facilities across America will not be able to cope with the costs or the numbers of non-paying patients.
Meanwhile, the U.S. adds 138,000 legal immigrants every 30 days. All of them add to the EMTALA costs to U.S. taxpayers.
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