A Hoosier Problem
Friday, October 17, 2008 at 08:00PM I've been thrown out of a lot of places in my lifetime, most of the time for reasons that I am not very proud of. But the recent ablation of my comment on the blog: Senator Delph [Rep, Ind]: Illegal Immigration Costs Hoosiers 'Millions' Annually on Health Care, Education makes me proud that I am a human rightist. I don't resent at all having my opinion deleted from the blog praising the tunnel-vision senator. I've reproduced my comment below for the benefit of anyone who might navigate through my website. I have the distinct impression that removing my comment is typical of many similar acts of deception that we've seen recently by our leaders in congress. Acts that have been responsible for the economic crisis, the healthcare disaster, and the management of the immigration crisis that we are seeing today. Read below and let me know you're thoughts.
Sure, take their education opportunities away. Let the children turn to gangs, turn to sexual exploitation, and turn to be drug-runners in order to survive. We don’t mind paying for the consequences of those social tragedies, do we?
Instead of helping these sojourners in our communities become good, self-sufficient, tax-paying citizens, let’s just grind them down, raid the workplaces, tear children away from their parents, put the family breadwinners in detention camps. And by all means let’s withhold health care. What have they done to deserve it? Not by being construction workers, housekeepers, restaurant workers, or engaging in countless other labor intensive jobs for the purpose of providing for their families and to make our lives more comfortable.
Senator Delph needs to ask Tim Kennedy of the Indiana Hospital Association if he has ever heard of the EMTALA law. If any of the illegal immigrants in Indiana are denied basic, outpatient health care they turn to emergency rooms where, by law, they can’t be turned away, and the cost of care does skyrocket. The same applies also to the millions of uninsured and underinsured “legals” in every community in the nation. The cost far exceeds the cost of health care for the “illegals”, most of whom are afraid to present themselves any place where they might be discovered and labeled as criminals.
I submit that Senator Delph consider focusing on the crisis issues of today–the economic disaster and the deteriorating healthcare system.
Senator Delph needs to ask Tim Kennedy of the Indiana Hospital Association if he has ever heard of the EMTALA law. If any of the illegal immigrants in Indiana are denied basic, outpatient health care they turn to emergency rooms where, by law, they can’t be turned away, and the cost of care does skyrocket. The same applies also to the millions of uninsured and underinsured “legals” in every community in the nation. The cost far exceeds the cost of health care for the “illegals”, most of whom are afraid to present themselves any place where they might be discovered and labeled as criminals.
charlesclarknovels
Reader Comments (2)
I support human rights myself. However, you can appreciate that although unauthorized immigrants usually pay income and payroll taxes, and pay property taxes directly or indirectly, not all of those dollars are going into the correct buckets. For example, unauthorized immigrants don't pay into a bucket that goes directly to healthcare - because they're not insured.
I believe an economic analysis from Texas found that in aggregate, unauthorized immigrants there put more into the system than they used in public services (e.g. schools, ER care), but the same might not be true in other states.
I agree, of course, that it would be better to allow undocumented immigrants to be treated in the full continuum of care, including primary care settings. However, the nation's disjointed financing mechanisms for healthcare makes this difficult. A number of health reform proposals that have universal insurance, whether there is a government program or not, would move responsibility for premium collection to the payroll system. Having a payroll tax for healthcare would capture many unauthorized immigrants.
In the long run, of course, their status needs to be resolved in a reasonable fashion through a guest worker program and/or a reasonable path to permanent residency. Additionally, the US will need to ensure that its trade agreements with Mexico are providing adequate jobs in Mexico.
I apologize for waiting so long thank you for your comment related to my blog on immigration. Currently, I believe progress is being made toward an immigration reform initiative. It continues to be a sensitive issue, as does health care reform.
Thanks again.
Charles Clark