Uninsured Immigrant Patients Sent Home for Care Against Their Will

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: ABC

Woman in Coma the Latest Example of Arizona Uninsured Immigrant Facing Forced Removal to Home Country

Hundreds of legal and illegal immigrants in Arizona are being sent back to their home countries, sometimes against their will, for medical treatment because they lack insurance.
In some cases, the FBI and police, responding to allegations of kidnapping, have been called in to halt such forcible removals, according to patients' lawyers. In one recent case, a sick baby who is a U.S. citizen born to an illegal immigrant was being transferred by helicopter to a waiting air ambulance for a flight to a hospital in Mexico when Tucson police intervened and brought the child back to the hospital.

The forcible removals are the result of federal and state law mandating that only U.S. citizens and legal residents are eligible for Medicaid. As a result, state hospitals are pressured to transport noncitizens, even if they're legally in the U.S., at the hospitals' expense, back to their home countries, at a cost of up to $100,000.

The alarming scenario has come to light in recent weeks with the dramatic case of Sonia Iscoa Del Cid, a house cleaner in the country legally under temporary protected status, who woke up from a coma last week only to realize that she was going to be forced back to her native Honduras because she lacked insurance for long-term care. The case galvanized the immigrant community in Phoenix.



Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4903138&page=1

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the compassion of money

[PDJane]

1. Is this supposed to be a "good thing"....

You know, make them folks who want a better life pay with theirs, or is it just a massive case of viciousness or stupidity?

It's certainly proving "American exceptionalism."

[annabanana]

2. k&r. . . . n/t

[ContraBass Black]

3. That's forcible deportation of citizens and legal residents by non-government organizations.

To put it mildly, this is impermissible.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Merlot]

5. The hospitals don't have the legl powe to deport someone

All they can do is refuse to treat them, which sounds bad, so they pretend they have a solution in ending them "home." Bettr they find a way to bill the immigrants home country.

Oh, and just where do they plan on sending Americans who don't have insurance????? Maybe they'll dupm them in skid row like they do here in LA.

[hunter]

6. Let's say it like it is: They are sent home to die.

We treat undocumented workers and their families like a disposable commodity. Some of these people get sick or injured because of the work they have done -- working with toxic chemicals, etc.

Plain and simple, the Empire of the United States is evil.

[eilen]

10. Who is we?

Perhaps it is employers who hire them. The hospitals need to be paid or they go out of business.

[AlphaCentauri]

14. Dumping US citizens on the street does not justified how the hospitals finances are done

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Can't wait for other countries to implement this policy! Maybe the next time an American tourist

gets ill in Peru and just didn't bother with buying travelers' insurance is flown 'home' for treatment, dying on the way, people here will wake up.

[mitchtv]

9. Don't think its not already happening

Mexico is notorious

[HiddenCSLib]

11. You don't get to leave

most other countries until you pay your bill, unlike here in the US.

[lovuian]

8. well in Mexico friends who used hospitals there were threatened

with Prison until they paid 10,000 cash before they let them out for broken leg It was scary definitely get those insurance companies when you go on your trips

I think Mexico and America need to get on the same page have Mexico get sent the bill so they pay for their people whats so hard about that and our insurance companies pay in Mexico

[midnight]

12. Were we not just discussing a couple who owned a coffee

shop who prayed vs. give their diabetic child health care? I believe the police were involved and arrested for medical negligence?

[AlphaCentauri]

16. were they Jehovah's Witnesses?

[nodehopper]

18. I think they were Chritstian Scientists

[provis99]

13. I wish they could ship me out of the country for health care

Canada sounds like it might be nice for health care. If I ever get in a catastrophic health situation, I'll just ask my HMO administrator if they can transport me to Canada for treatment!

[flashl]

15. Maybe if she ran for the border, they would have arrested her and brought her back?

Feds arrest illegal immigrants who are trying to leave USA

The government has a new approach to border enforcement. Instead of just focusing on people who are entering the country illegally, the Los Angeles Times says federal agents are also arresting undocumented foreigners who are trying to leave the United States.

[AlphaCentauri]

20. The Golden Cage

[depakid]

17. Sounds like an EMTALA violation

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.

Wonder if repeated instances of this behavior could be the basis for a RICO action?

[fed_up_mother]

19. Once the patient is stabilized, they can legally send the patient elsewhere

if they find a place.

I guess if they look far enough...

[Ice-9]

21. America will happily cut off its nose to spite its face.

The forcible removals are the result of federal and state law mandating that only U.S. citizens and legal residents are eligible for Medicaid. As a result, state hospitals are pressured to transport noncitizens, even if they're legally in the U.S., at the hospitals' expense, back to their home countries, at a cost of up to $100,000.

The cost of removal probably exceeds the cost of treatment in a lot of cases. And yet, I'll bet that if you were to point that out, a lot of Americans would still want to see the immgrants get sent home. Let's face it: the point of this law is not to save money; it's to degrade people whom many Americans viscerally dislike.

[Honeycombe8]

22. It's a tough situation. I can't afford to pay for someone else's healthcare. Can you?

But it does seem harsh to send them back at this point. Still...it isn't morally (or legally) right to expect someone else to be forced to pay for someone else's medical care. Shit....we don't even have all of own citizens with healthcare yet.

It's a dilemma. I've read that AZ has been hit esp. hard with healthcare costs for illegal immigrants, so that's probably why they've decided to do something.

As for my city, our local hospital's maternity ward has triple the number of babies it was built to handle. Most from illegal immigrants. We pay for it with very high property taxes. I'm just a working woman who can't afford much higher property taxes. It's a dilemma, all right, with no easy answer (except to stem the tide of people continuing to come into the country illegally).

[flashl]

23. Who is paying the $100,000?

As a result, state hospitals are pressured to transport noncitizens, even if they're legally in the U.S., at the hospitals' expense, back to their home countries, at a cost of up to $100,000.

[Lars39]

24. If those immigrants are renting, they are paying property taxes also.