Jessica Marcy, Kaiser Health News, October 23, 2009
Dr. Antonio Falcon, {snip} a member of the Texas Medical Association and the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission, is concerned about several health threats facing border communities, including tuberculosis, diabetes, obesity and the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu. He says the current efforts to overhaul the nation’s health system will benefit both the Hispanic community, which has the highest rate of uninsured of any ethnic group; and Texas, which consistently fares among the worst for state health care measures. Still, he worries that lawmakers in Washington are failing to address several important border health issues, including illegal immigrants’ health care.
KHN’s Jessica Marcy recently spoke with Falcon, who warned that failure to recognize the high, unreimbursed costs of caring for this population could undermine hospitals and providers along the border and open the door to public health risks for the entire nation. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.
Q: Since you began practicing medicine in 1980, how has the health delivery system’s approach to illegal immigrants’ health care changed? What impact has the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)—which requires hospitals to provide emergency services regardless of a patient’s ability to pay—had on health care in border communities?
A: Back in the 1980s, the patient from Mexico was usually the best paying patient because in order to get care here, they would have to pay for their deliveries up front. It was a system that worked very, very well. When EMTALA [was enacted], it basically caused a very large influx of patients from Mexico . . . because labor and delivery became an emergency and patients had to be seen whether they paid or not. What happened in a lot of communities along the border, where the Mexican patient was the best paying patient, [they] became a huge liability because they were no longer paying for their care. So all of a sudden, these hospitals and providers were faced with this huge volume of uncompensated care. {snip}
Interestingly enough, it seems that nobody can answer the question of what’s going to happen to border providers and hospitals if illegals aren’t covered under a new health care bill. If they’re not covered and EMTALA continues to exist and providers and hospitals are going to have to provide the care without compensation, it’s going to cause a catastrophic situation along the border, which already has a very fragile health care system.
Q: What do you think about provisions in some health overhaul measures that would prohibit illegal immigrants from purchasing insurance on proposed exchanges?
A: The biggest risk is the financial failure of [border] health care institutions. If illegal immigrants are not going to be covered under a national health plan, then there must be a mechanism for reimbursement for the care of those patients. If that doesn’t happen, then all of a sudden border hospitals and providers have to take a 35 percent cut in their gross income and they’re not going to make it.
As it is, the border area already has a much higher percentage of Medicaid patients than other areas in the country. Providers and hospitals are strapped with the bare minimum of financial resources because of the reimbursement mechanism that exists. {snip}
Q: Do you think there are any other specific health risks from excluding illegal immigrants from the health care system and reform?
A: I think [the risk is] the spread of any infectious disease, especially tuberculosis. TB is actually on the rise along the border. I think that 70 to 80 percent of these cases we’re seeing now are related to immigrants. It’s a very high percentage. That, together with the fact that we’re seeing more multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, causes an enormous amount of concern. If those patients are not going to get any treatment then public-health-wise we have a huge problem.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on October 27, 2009)
Comments
ITS WORTH THE SACRIFICE TO ALLOW THESE ILLEGAL ALIENS INTO THE USA SO THEY CAN VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS.
The good doctor just made the case for total militarization of the southern border.
“Illegals are bankrupting our hospitals.”
Yes, they’ve been doing that for quite some time now, and it will not only continue, but will accelerate as the economy worsens, because more people will lose their healthcare along with their jobs, so their only recourse is to do as the illegals do which is to go to the emergency rooms. The system would be able to barely handle citizens in down times like we’re now enduring even without the illegals. Adding illegals to the problem places added strain on the hospitals, which will be too much for many of them.
This border mess has been encouraged by the Democrats for more votes and by the Republicans for cheap labor. The corruption of both, plus the anti-white president, is going to be the death of the country. And that is an irrefutable fact.
I have brought up this fact several times on this website: Rep Roharabacker of Southern California tried to pass legislation that would have freed hospitals from being forced to treat illegals for free with no questions asked. The house voted it down, by my math, 5 to 1.What is wrong with these nitwits? I am a democrat, and I have NEVER voted for my Rep in congress and the third most powerful American political figure, Nancy Pinkolosi; who always sides with illegal immigrants.
I heave a novel solution to this “crisis”.
I am tired of all the veiled threats from the talking heads that if we don’t insure the illegals, the hospitals will go bankrupt, terrible, communicable diseases will skyrocket, etc.
Providing healthcare to illegals is NOT the only solution.
Deportation and border security is the best solution for all.
I hate to say it, but the only way things are going to really change is if the system absolutely collapses.
This is a terrible dilemma: essentially it seems the choice is either render humane treatment for the genuinely sick though economically unentitled or choose the economic preservation of the medical infrastructure for the same purpose for those for whom it was intended and who paid for it.
If essentially free medical care continues to be rendered unabated, than the medical system in those areas must collapse or require massive amounts of government aid just to keep them aloat.
A very compelling reason why illegals should be deported.
“I think [the risk is] the spread of any infectious disease, especially tuberculosis. TB is actually on the rise along the border. I think that 70 to 80 percent of these cases we’re seeing now are related to immigrants.”
Frightening. To be talking about a possible tuberculosis epidemic (also known by it’s pleasant 19th century name: consumption) in modern America is nothing short of frightening.
Visions of Tombstone, Arizona and Doc Holliday coughing and spitting bloody phlegm into his handkerchief.
Another compelling reason why illegals should be deported.
And yet the USA has 28,000 troops defending South Korea’s border. Even though the war there ended 56 years ago. South Korea has twice the north’s population, forty times its GDP and a huge technical lead. Go figure…then there’s 50,000 in Japan, and “Africom command”….and troops in Guam…and Europe…and 700 overseas bases all around the world. It would be like Rome conquering the whole of the ancient Mediterranean world while Cisalpine Gaul was full of barbarians invading the Po valley, or England creating it’s maritime Empire while the Scottish border was open, defenseless and full of hostile invading Picts….
“A: I think [the risk is] the spread of any infectious disease, especially tuberculosis. TB is actually on the rise along the border. I think that 70 to 80 percent of these cases we’re seeing now are related to immigrants. It’s a very high percentage. That, together with the fact that we’re seeing more multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, causes an enormous amount of concern.”
Now that this traitor thinks it is in the best interest of La Raza to lobby for more free healthcare, he reveals the TRUTH about the infected state of the invading hordes.
My wife’s father, a life-long resident of Southern California - two tours of duty in Viet Nam - DIED of this multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. His VA doctor told the family that he probably contracted it from an infected Mexican at the flea-markets he frequented in search of automotive parts.
Sacrifice 8 years in defense of the country, and the TRAITORS in Washington ultimately kill you in your home town.
“A: Back in the 1980s, the patient from Mexico was usually the best paying patient because in order to get care here, they would have to pay for their deliveries up front. It was a system that worked very, very well. When EMTALA [was enacted], it basically caused a very large influx of patients from Mexico … because labor and delivery became an emergency and patients had to be seen whether they paid or not.”
As I have tried to tell my fellow white brothers and sisters time and time again - to fully understand this issue, one absolutely must view it through the perspective of deliberate genocide. Let me explain how this angle works in this case.
White families, by and large, are the most responsible ethnic group of all, with regards to planning new additions to their families. Babies are expensive, and so white couples have a greater tendency to post-pone pregnancy until their family’s financial resources are stable and fruitful enough to afford to have children. This is true both in America and in literally every other dominant European majority nation. We are not ‘fast breeders’.
Non-whites, aside from some specific groups of Asians, seldom give much advanced thought to having kids - primarily because of the welfare and AFDC and other such social entitlement programs that liberals have established that rob mostly white middle class taxpayers and then funnel this stolen money over to fund the irresponsible breeding habits of our racial competitors.
Hence, as a consequence of higher and higher taxes being imposed on the white middle class tax payers, white families have less of the resources that they earn available to them to spend on their own families, which includes being able to afford to have more children.
I contend that the enemies of our race understand this aspect to the war that they are waging against us, and this is one of their unspoken motivations for continuing to fleece as much money as possible out of white family pockets. This same principle also applies to NAFTA and other such legislation that is gutting the middle class job opportunities, which hits white middle class bread winners especially hard. H1-B Visas fit the same pattern.
It’s all connected, friends. And, each one of these painful stings are merely another arrow in the quiver of our enemies to be fired into the heart and soul of White European people.
Genocide by stealth. By way of deception, thou shall make war.
This doctor needs to speak to Congress. I know the open borders crowd won’t believe him anymore than the pro-illegals who didn’t believe Lou Dobbs when he tried to warn them. Well, if anyone has watched Lou recently, they can see the traitors have won. Lou Hardly mentions illegal aliens anymore and if he does, he must now say “illegal immigrants.” I suppose his job was on the line due to the complaints of the anti-American group, La Raza. This situation is a health hazard to the whole country. Bring the troops home and line them up on the border and keep the disease carriers out!
They are absolutely bankrupting our hospitals, on OUR money.
My story: I am in Georgia. Several years ago my husband was scheduled for dual carpal-tunnel surgery. To be checked in, we were seated in a very large waiting room, full of black-haired, spanish-speaking people. We waited probably 20 minutes until they called us. But they called us into the ‘Financial Counselor’s’ office; not the check in offices. Oddly, none of the people waiting there with us had been called into this office.
The ‘Financial Counselor’ told us, “We’ve checked with your insurance company and you have a $1,200 balance on your deductible. Would you like to pay that with cash or a credit card?”
I stared at her and said, “Excuse me???” She repeated her question, and I blew up. “Ok, let me get this straight. We have insurance. The second I gave you my card, you were guaranteed 80% of my bill, even if I don’t pay another dime. Right? And you want me to pay the deductible up front, before you even do the surgery?”
She stumbled a bit, and said something about it being hospital policy, blah, blah. I got very loud and said, “You tell me how many of those Mexicans out there, most of whom are CRIMINALS, and aren’t even supposed to BE here, have had to come in here and PRE-PAY for the same care my husband is getting? They don’t have to pay a damn dime and you want the paying customers to pay UP FRONT? Just cancel the surgery.”
I started to get up and leave, and flustered, she said, “But, but.” I said, “This is elective surgery. Just cancel it. There’s another hospital in town and we’ll make arrangements with the doctor to have it done there.” She said, “Wait just a minute.”
Moral: Stand up loudly and demand fairness. Quit shying away from hurting anyone’s feelings.
This isn’t too hard to figure out. When your own government is more concerned with the well being of INVADERS who have Spit in the Face of our Country and Laws just by being here. They could care less about what our other laws are, they want to be here so they come, they want FREE, FREE, FREE, and We Deliver. With what is going on in Washington we are just steps away from being slaves of the state. Go to their country and start making demands! You will be coming home in a body bag.
It’s difficult to reach through the years of public education indoctrination and reach today’s modern liberals but I’ll try.
Each country competes in the global marketplace against other countries (even their allies) for scarce resources (e.g. economics 101), to see their worldview dominant (e.g. democracy versus Marixsm for example), etc…
Importing millions upon millions of the poorest, most ignorant, and criminally minded people in the world into America and European countries instead of investing in their own populations and supplimenting them with the best and brightest the world has to offer has not resulted in desirable results on any level. These results you hear on the news each night, read in your local paper, and find on the internet (such as this story for example).
Much better than acting against our own interests would have been to act in our interests and from that position assist countries that wanted what we have to resolve their internal problems, change their cultures, adopt our worldview (e.g. democracy) and become a nation people wouldn’t feel the need to flee from.
Instead we acted foolishly and co-dependently against our own interests not actually helping their long term interests either. In Nash’s game theory we call this a lose-lose.
It was a mistake and it’s time to admit it was and correct it before we lose what we have built and our ability to lead the world. Totalitarian marxism and Islamic law are worldviews already making inroads toward supplanting free democracies around the world.
When non-racists point out these simple observable realities and you call them racists it is akin to someone calling you a crackhead because you are a modern liberal. It makes about as much sense. The name calling defense is nothing but a trigger implanted in you as part of your modern liberal indoctrination. Lose that programming and learn to qualify the issues logically.
Acting against your own country’s interests in favor of foreign countries is treason. It’s not ok just because your high school teacher told you it was and it’s not ok just because your favorite modern liberal television commentator says it is.
The way forward is clear. Join us.
“Visions of Tombstone and Doc Holliday spitting and coughing into a hankerchief”-White jewish and Proud
Shawn (The Female) posts:
“…Moral: Stand up loudly and demand fairness. Quit shying away from hurting anyone’s feelings…”
Good for you! And it’s easier to do than anyone thinks—we MUST hit anti-White organizations and businesses, including lefty universities, right in the pocketbook, let ‘em know why, let our voices be heard and boycott when necessary.
Alex Kurtagic writes at Occidental Observer:
“…you can always do your bit by engaging in guerrilla economics. Large businesses are more vulnerable than you think, and their entire management lives in fear.. they know that without customers’ wallets, they are nothing.
Most people who receive poor customer service do not complain, and some companies need only receive as few as ten letters of complaint on a given issue to start paying attention…. Let this be yet another front on which we wage our culture war…”
http://tinyurl.com/yzj3dsz
After reading this I realized that if we don’t start speaking up, we Whites deserve the treatment we receive.
I live in California and I am sick and tired of the often hostile treatment I receive from the mostly hispanic work force in the supermarket, the garden center, the hardware store, Target and just about every other retail outlet.
I’ve decided to take down specific names and write e mails of complaint to the corporate offices telling them about the rude treatment I’ve been subjected to, that I will take my business to their competitor and that they will never again receive one penny of my hard-earned money—and that I plan to tell everyone I know.
The first e mail went to Macy’s corporate office—a company that has been fighting bankruptcy in California for a decade and has closed many of its stores. I explained that I put back approximately $200 worth of merchandise after one of their clerks blatantly ignored me in favor of other customers (I didn’t mention race) and that from now on, I would patronize Nordstrom’s, where I’m always treated with respect.
I received an e mail of apology from the corporate office almost immediately and a call and e mail from the manager of the store where I was ‘dissed.’ The manager apologized and tried to excuse the rudeness by saying that the store was busy and ‘perhaps the clerk didn’t see me.’ I told her that was not the case as I stood directly in front of the clerk long enough to know she didn’t care to wait on me.
This past week, I complained to my local newspaper that their (hispanic) delivery service has been throwing my paper in the gutter and delivering it after the promised 6 AM delivery time—and the very next time I find my paper in the gutter I am canceling. This is a newspaper that has severely downsized in recent years and moved into much smaller building.
Within an hour, I received via e mail a personal letter of apology. An hour later, I received another apology via e mail from a different department. When I returned home several hours later there were three long messages on my answering machine, from three different people at the paper, all apologizing for the poor service I’d received—one message had the manager’s personal cell phone number and asked that I call her upon receiving the message. Another phone call from yet a different department came in during dinner assuring me that the problem had been taken care of and that they would adjust my account accordingly for the papers that had been thrown in the gutter.
Your pocketbook is the most powerful weapon you have against institutions and businesses that refuse to hire Whites, treat us like dirt or mock us yet depend on OUR White money to stay in business—and they know it. Poor, uneducated hispanics do not read English-language newspapers or shop in Macy’s or Nordstroms or the local up-scale garden center and if these businesses lose their White base they will be out of business.
Please complain when necessary, it’s very easy to find the e mail of any corporate office on-line and it only takes a few minutes to let a company know why you are pulling your business.
I’ve found it to be very effective.
Bon
Dr. Falcon, it isn’t powerless illegal aliens that are bankrupting the country. Rather, it is the Democratic Administration, Republican Rino’s like McCain, Graham, etc. and the apathetic American public. It is disingenuous to put the blame on those who simply do with impunity, what they are allowed to do by those in power. Americans have got to get over this misplaced thinking. I can’t stand illegal aliens, but I’m not going to say they shouldn’t do this or that, or whatever…… THEY SHOULDN’T BE HERE. PERIOD!!!
“Frightening. To be talking about a possible tuberculosis epidemic (also known by it’s pleasant 19th century name: consumption) in modern America is nothing short of frightening.”
Here in Texas, we’ve already had increases in TB and we had a typhus outbreak recently. These two diseases had become rare but are now not rare anymore. State officials are building on a new wing on the state TB sanitarium mainly because of immigration from Mexico and for some Americans who have now contracted it. There is also a new extremely drug resistant TB which is almost impossible to treat. Thanks USA government for allowing this.
