When uninsured immigrants are hurt, who pays?-
Alan Bavley. The Kansas City Star, March 24,
2005, is as rich a serving of facts on America's illegal
immigration/health care disaster as I have seen in a
long time:
- A
specific financial atrocity – in this case, a badly
injured uninsured illegal of 2 years standing who has
already cost North Kansas City Hospital $250,000
- Further damning details: "In Dodge City, 30
percent to 40 percent of patients arriving at the
emergency room of the Western Plains Medical
Complex are undocumented immigrants, said Brian
Roland, the hospital's business office director. 'Most
of them are uninsured,' he said. 'We do have some
folks who do what they can to pay, but a large
majority does not.'"
- An
irresponsible legal system preventing the hospital's
frantic attempt to ship their deadbeat patient back to
Guatemala (featuring his pro-bono lawyer
Chuck Chionuma [e-mail
him], an immigrant from Nigeria.)
- A
pro-immigrant bureaucrat demonstrating one again the
need to fix the
14th Amendment problem: " 'Several
of the patients are young adults with families — young
children they're responsible for who are U.S.
citizens. How do you say no to them?' "- Suzanne
Meyer, director of social work, Truman Medical Center.
Not for the first time, political
correctness does not yet seem to have paralyzed
America's local media.