Immigration - Anyone here familiar with California's healthcare system?

[bleedingheart]

About 10 years ago I worked in the medical equipment consulting business for a company that sold software that billed medical insurers.

Many of my customers were located in California and I flew there very frequently to do training and consulting.

One of my clients was a company that distributed diabetic supplies and over lunch he told me that more than half of the people he was supplying with diabetic supplies were not legal residents of the US. Now he didn't care one way or the other because he was making money hand over fist but he told me that he wasn't sure how much longer the taxpayers in California would be willing to pay for this care when lower middle class Americans weren't eligible for programs and were paying out of pocket for the same supplies.

Another client I did a training trip for sold custom wheelchairs, they averaged around $30,000 a piece with some going as high as $50,000 depending upon what was on them, once again he stated that while he was making money hand over fist he also found that he was supplying chairs and other specialized equipment to people who were not citizens or even legal residents.

Now I am not trying to fuel the fires but having seen those situations I have to say that when you have a terribly unfair healthcare system in this country...this kind of situation fuels the anger that Average Americans have towards illegal immigrants. Are illegal immigrants the problem? I can't say they are a problem or not, however the fact that they are soooooo poor gives them access to things that hardworking americans in many cases can't have...like healthcare and that kind of disparity pisses people off.

Now as I stated it has been 10 years since I have worked in medical billing but I do keep up with my old associates and they have confirmed that the problem still remains. In California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and a host of other states...the healthcare systems are overbilling for services to compensate for losses on care they provide to illegals...and where they can they bill the state medicaid systems.