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November 1, 2007
Illegal Aliens Impose Burden After Wildfires
Posted by Dave Blount at November 1, 2007 8:14 AM
In the aftermath of the California wildfires, we're reminded again of the crippling burden imposed on our healthcare resources by the millions of Mexicans who sneak into the country and aggressively throw themselves on the mercy of our moonbattery:
The fact that 11 of the 18 wildfire victims lying in UCSD Medical Center's burn unit are illegal immigrants with no apparent health coverage highlights the daunting financial challenge hospitals face in providing long-term, intensive care for all those who need it.
Border Patrol agent James Jacques monitored the road that leads to Barrett Junction yesterday. "These are the most expensive kinds of cases, but we don't look at these patients and say, oh, because they aren't legal residents, we'll stop providing care or stop changing their bandages," said Dr. Thomas McAfee, UCSD's physician-in-chief. […]
With some facing a long rehabilitation, hospital officials said they realize many U.S. taxpayers don't believe UCSD should provide such expensive hospital care to illegal immigrants. But, by law, that care must be provided "to anyone who comes regardless of their ability to pay."
Last year, San Diego County hospitals provided $619 million in uncompensated care, and an estimated 10 percent to 17 percent of that paid for treatment for undocumented immigrants, according to the Hospital Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Burn care requires ventilators, multiple surgeries, round-the-clock intensive care and grafts from human cadaveric skin. McAfee said grafts can be grown from patients' own skin to minimize tissue rejection at $500,000 per patient.
But they're here illegally. Can't we just send them home? Of course not:
Esmeralda Siu of the Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante, a network of migrant shelters and other services in Baja California, said rules prevent the United States from sending Mexican nationals home before they can travel safely.
"By law, they can't deport them if they are injured," said Siu, who is based in Tijuana. "They have to be stabilized, and that they accept leaving, and that they are well to travel."
Why bother socializing medicine? For illegal aliens, who always come first from the point of view of our politicians, it's already been socialized — with the added benefit that many of them don't even have to help defray the cost with taxes, since they don't pay any.
Too bad the fires didn't burn up the garbage illegal aliens leave in their wake as they invade.
On a tip from Bob.
