Hospital report

Anyone working on the illegal alien crisis soon runs into the problem of gathering information. I think sometimes we assume too much. That is to say, we start believing that every foreigner in town must be an illegal.

Of course, that is far from the truth. But unless and until the government and the media begin asking the tough questions and telling the people, we are left in the dark. And I think it is fair to assume that where government agencies are concerned they don’t ask and they don’t keep track because they don’t want to know the answer.

The Daily Herald recently ran a story about the Kids First free health care program. Their questions were forthright and valid. How many illegal alien children are being served by Kids First and how much is it costing us.

The only answer they received from the Governor's Office was “less than 4%” of the children and no one keeps track of the costs.

The Courier News ran a story on June 15th about medical costs. Again, it is vague. A hospital doesn’t try to find out who is here illegally. It isn’t their responsibility.

But due to Federal laws on the books (The EMTALA) our hospitals cannot refuse to treat anyone. Furthermore, case law dictates that they can’t just stop the bleeding and send them back out onto the street – They have to heal the patient before they release them.

Now, 45% of non-citizens do not have any form of health insurance coverage. Here’s the link to the US Census study on the uninsured: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf

In real life that means that they show up in the Emergency Room for treatment and might be admitted for a few days or weeks of care.

Some just declare themselves charity cases. Others agree to pay but after making efforts to collect the hospital just gives up and writes off the bad debt.

So, who pays? The hospital can either collect more from us or move out of the neighborhood in search of a richer clientele.

Here are some facts and figures from the Courier News article:
St. Joe’s in ONE YEAR (2007):
*About $3.3 million for free or reduced-cost care for about 1,200 uninsured patients.
*About $5 million toward the unpaid costs of Medicaid.
Sherman in 2007:
*About $1.87 million on "charity care," or health care services to persons classified by the hospital as being unable to pay
*Another $23.7 million on "bad debts"

Now if only someone in authority would do a survey to determine how these costs break down in terms of citizens, non-citizens, and illegal aliens. Don’t hold your breath.