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Local Issues
We know this about Dallas, Texas, but this is also
hurting our local hospitals and economy as well. Since our
wonderful Kansas Governor is hell bent on Socialized Medicine
and not looking at the real root of the problem, we think its all
too fitting for this column. ----- Original Message
-----
UNBELIEVABLE!
Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas is a fairly famous institution and
for a variety of reasons:
1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly afterwards
3. Jack Ruby-who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, died there a few years later by
coincidence
"On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in
the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44
per day---every day)
A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at
Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants. That's
11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas. According to the article,
the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to
end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in
$34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds
tossed in another $9.5 million.
The average patient in Parklands maternity wards is 25 years old, married and
giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal immigrant. By law,
pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status
or ability to pay.
OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday,
middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital, they do.
Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics. NINE.
The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at
one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were
also born at Parkland. Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native
was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico. This time,
the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she
was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the
hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this
point.)
How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects?
Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after
her mother entered the U.S. illegally---now she is having her own child there as
well. (That's right; she's technically a U.S. citizen.) These women receive free
prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care
classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.
Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for
low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost
insurmountable.
Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any sort
of legitimate identification---no proof of income. An American citizen would
have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual
income---an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must
take them at their word.
"My husband is a pilot for the United States Navy (yes, he fought in Iraq ) and
while the health care is good, we Navy wives don't get any of these perks! Car
seats? Diapers? Not so much. So my question is this: Does our public medical
care system treat illegal immigrants better than American citizens? Yes it does!
As I mentioned, the care I have received is perfectly adequate but it's bare
bones, meat and potato medical care---not top of line.
Their (the illegals) medical care is free---simply because they are illegal
immigrants? Once again, there is no way to verify their income.
Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less
than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health
coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for
Americans.)
There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for
un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free
treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is going
to sue them! Illegals get it all free! But U.S citizens who live outside of
Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?
As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually
complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the
author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from
the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to
explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for
her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to
her.
In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now
providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish.
Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which
Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language
requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in
the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.
In the meantime, I have to end my column here. I have to go buy a car seat.
Is Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas next?
All the information provided above is an absolute fact. Also a fact is
that 6% of the 12% uninsured Kansas residents are Illegal Aliens. The real
question here is whether any of you want to drop us a email and tell us what
Wesley or any Kansas hospital spends (wastes) on Illegal Aliens every year?
Be anonymous and drop us a line to tell us your story of our hospitals dark
little secret.
Thank You for
sending this to us Melissa.... |
