Category Archives: Healthcare

SA Express News: Rep. Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal immigrants

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Jason Buch writes:

State Rep. Lyle Larson is asking Mexican President Felipe Calderón to pay for services that Texas provides immigrants who are here illegally.

In a March 21 letter, Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote that the state spends between $6 billion and $8 billion a year on health care and other costs for illegal immigrants, a number he attributed to the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas.Larson, who filed a bill during the 2011 legislative session that would have required state agencies and organizations that receive state funding to track the services they provide immigrants, said he wants to “start a dialogue.”

“We need to sit down and figure this out from an economic viewpoint,” he said. “I don’t believe anybody I’m aware of has asked the people in power in Mexico for compensation.”

In August, Gov. Rick Perry sent a bill to the federal government for $349 million for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants. Perry’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.  Read more …

al.com: Alabama immigration law has denied basic human rights, report says

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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Alabama’s immigration law has led to illegal immigrants around the state having their basic rights denied and should be repealed, a human rights group contends in a report being issued today.

“The initial human impact has been devastating, though the full consequences remain unknown,” stated the report, “No Way To Live: Alabama’s Immigrant Law,” issued by Human Rights Watch.

“A group of people have found themselves unable to live the lives they had lived for many years. Some were barred from access to basic services like water, and many more were told they could not live in homes they own,” according to the report. Read More …

NYT: Recall Election Claims Arizona Anti-Immigration Champion

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“MESA, Ariz. — For years, Russell Pearce, Arizona’s most powerful legislator and the architect of its tough immigration law, has sought to make life so uncomfortable for illegal immigrants in the state that they pack up and go.

But Mr. Pearce, known for his gruff, uncompromising manner, was the one sent packing on Tuesday after disgruntled voters in this suburban neighborhood outside Phoenix banded together to recall him from the State Senate and replace him with a more moderate Republican.”  Read more …

Houston Chronicle: Still no solution for illegal immigrants’ long-term care costs

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"With an infant son, a common-law wife who's a U.S. citizen and a job at a Galveston bait shop, Francisco Martinez was working toward the American dream.

Then Martinez fell off the shop's roof and landed unceremoniously at the intersection of one of America's most vexing ethical, political and financial conundrums: the care of severely sick or injured illegal immigrants.

'It's a tragic, intractable problem,' said Antonio Zavaleta, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Brownsville who specializes in health care and immigrant populations. 'There's no clear solution.'

Provide the long-term care and those institutions will rack up expenses that either bankrupt them or get passed on to U.S. citizens through higher charges. Don't provide the care and many of those patients won't survive, an ethical blight for a nation that prides itself on being humanitarian.

The UT Medical Branch at Galveston's solution, after saving Martinez's life, was to try to persuade the Mexican national, now paralyzed from the chest down, to return to his homeland for the special, long-term care he needs. Martinez's response, despite UTMB's offer to pay for the trip, was to tell hospital officials, 'if you don't want me here, just throw me outside.'" Read more ….

 

Houston Chronicle: UTMB offers patient a ticket to Mexico

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"GALVESTON - Francisco Martinez wasn't happy about the free trip back to Mexico offered to him by a social worker at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Martinez, 37, of Bacliff, broke his back Aug. 17 after falling off a ladder while working on the roof of a bait shop where he was employed.

UTMB doctors saved his life, but he is paralyzed from the chest down, can barely move his hands and needs special care.

The problem for UTMB is that Martinez is undocumented and has no hope of qualifying for workman's compensation or Medicaid. UTMB is forced to bear the expense of Martinez's care until another place can be found for him to go.

Experts say the problems confronting Martinez and UTMB raise ethical and social issues about the rights of undocumented residents and the costs when some are inevitably injured and require expensive long-term treatment.

Martinez said the social worker badgered him about signing documents that would allow the hospital to purchase him a ticket for Mexico. Martinez doesn't want to leave his common-law wife, who is a U.S. citizen, and their 6-month-old son. He refused to sign.

'If you don't want me here, just throw me outside,' Martinez told the social worker.

UTMB declined to comment on Martinez."  Read more …