Song For America
The cost of providing healthcare to illegal immigrants makes health insurance more expensive for the rest of us. Take for example a woman illegally in the U.S. who has been at a Wichita hospital for over four months. (Wichita Eagle, June 15, 2008) Ineligible for Medicare or Medicaid, this patient needs long-term care. Not only does it take away a hospital bed from the rest of the taxpaying population, the costs have to be accounted for, and inevitably are passed on to your health insurance premiums.
Point Of No Return
Typically it's the E.R. which becomes the source of medical treatment for many illegal immigrants. Should they be turned away? Not if the only documentation required is proof of residency. (Vail Daily, June 15, 2008) What do doctors and nurses at our emergency rooms find themselves treating?... ear infections, sore throats, respiratory infections and fevers, hardly the best use of their time, and again, guess who the costs get passed onto.
Dust In The Wind
So the folks in Kansas decided to crackdown on illegal immigrants - and at a cost of $1 million beefed up their Medicaid proof of citizenship procedures. The result: 20,000 eligible Kansans lost their health insurance, because they could not meet the new tougher guidelines. Meanwhile, a grand total of one illegal immigrant was arrested. Hey, at least that's better than Colorado, which spent $2 million and for which the number of illegals they caught was precisely zero. (KSHB, June 19, 2008)
Carry On My Wayward Son
Yet despite these examples, other states seem to have no problem offering health benefits and services to illegals. In Massachusetts the Department of Public Health is launching a program to offer free healthcare to illegal immigrants. (Metro West Daily News, May 29, 2008) In California illegal immigrants get healthcare for their kids too. (ABC News, June 24, 2007) Meanwhile in Florida underground pharmacies and spontaneous field clinics welcome illegals with open arms. (NBC2 Fort Myers, January 31, 2008)
With this much hospitality expect health insurance premiums to continue rising unless of course we get some miracles out of nowhere.
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