Welfare for illegal aliens

[Lone_Gunman]

I have received quite a few flyers from the Republican candidate for Congress here saying he wants to cut off welfare for illegal aliens. He doesn't seem to concerned with keeping them out of the country, just not giving them benefits once they get here. Would it not be better for him to support keeping illegals out to begin with?

The more I think about it, the more I believe that cutting off certain social programs for illegal aliens is wrong, at least services like Medicaid. The Republicans want these people to continue to come here illegally so that business owners, farmers, etc, will have a cheap source of labor. But they don't want the responsibility of having to provide anything for these people. They don't want to have to raise taxes to pay for their medical care.

For example, if someone hires an illegal, they pay him a cheap wage, and provide no benefits. If that illegal then gets sick, he goes to the emergency room. The hospital and the doctor are legally obligated to provide care for him. The Republicans don't want to have to provide compensation on behalf of the illegal, so basically the hospital and doctor get stuck with having to take care of someone for free.

This benefits only the companies that hire illegals. The loss the hospital and doctor take will ultimately be passed on to paying customers and our insurance companies in the form of increased fees later on.

 

[Glock Glockler]

He doesn't seem to concerned with keeping them out of the country, just not giving them benefits once they get here.

1 - If there are less doles to take advantage then coming to the US will be less appealing and less will try. Take away the honey and the flies wont come.

2 - Your politician has limited power to regarding a security fense as Congress doesnt want it built. Building a good fense as a part of beefed up border security would help in preventing a portion of the illegals from coming here, this is why Congress wont do it.

The Republicans don't want to have to provide compensation on behalf of the illegal, so basically the hospital and doctor get stuck with having to take care of someone for free

Does a doctor have to treat someone or is it emergency room services cannot be denied? As much as I'd love for that law to be done away with the chances of it happening are more likely Hillary Clinton becoming a groupie for Whitesnake, at least if you stipulate that it's only emergency room services that must be provided you can always triage the less severe injuries. In that case if illegals all go to the emergency room because they know they wont be denied, even in the case of minor injuries, they'll find themselves waiting a long time depending on what else is going on in the ER. This might be a bit of a deterent.

The loss the hospital and doctor take will ultimately be passed on to paying customers and our insurance companies in the form of increased fees later on

How is this any different from the taxpayers picking up the tab on the govt funding services for illegals?

 

[Lone_Gunman]

Does a doctor have to treat someone or is it emergency room services cannot be denied?

Yes, the doctor has to treat them if they are in an emergency situation. That is required by law.

So if someone comes in with a stab wound, appendicitis, heart attack, severe pneumonia, or anything else that makes them sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, they are required by law to treat them until they are no longer in an emergency situation. Of course, once care has been started, the doctor has to complete that care, or else get sued by the illegal for malpractice.. So even after they are no longer in an emergency situation, care will be continued to prevent a lawsuit.

I don't think cutting off services to illegals will deter them from coming. If all Medicaid was cut off, they would still come, knowing that if they get sick they will still be treated, and arent going to pay for it anyway.

How is this any different from the taxpayers picking up the tab on the govt funding services for illegals?

Well for one thing, it delays compensation for a couple of years. For example, if doctors and hospitals provide care today for free, they will increase their fees eventually but no right away to compensate. So, next year when fees are being reviewed they will go up. The doctor and hospital have to pay bills now, not later.

I am a physician, and have to take care of everyone in an emergency situation when I am on call, regardless of their ability to pay. I am legally and morally obligated to do so. That is part of my duty, but that does not mean I want my charity to be taken advantage of. Why should I have to do that for free, knowing that the employers of these illegals are making money off them, not providing any medical benefits, and actively working to keep Medicaid from being able to pay me? I fix their illegals up, and the employers put them back in the fields, and continue to make profit off them..

The Republicans are sticking me and the hospital with the tab for the medical bills. If our society is going to "benefit" from the supply of cheap labor that illegals provide, then the cost of their medical bills needs to be distributed across society, and not simply borne by the medical community.

 

[longeyes]

Obviously, we need to keep them out AND cut off public service benefits.

I doubt we will do either.

I guess the Hippocratic Oath is more important than preserving your nation. No doubt the history books will remark on that with irony. I don't remember Hippocrates ever holding elected office in America.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

I guess the Hippocratic Oath is more important than preserving your nation.

Not sure of your point.

If we would keep them out, we would not have to worry about providing care to them.

But if society is going to supposedly benefit from them, then why does the medical community need to foot the medical bills? You know the illegals won't pay, they just change their name from Juan Hernandez to Jose Fernandez, and no one knows the difference.

You do realize that doctors and hospitals are required by federal law to take care of their emergencies, dont you? The Hippocratic Oath is sort of moot in the face of federal law. And after I get started in their care, and the emergency is over, I am still obligated to care for them or risk malpractice?

I can't exactly operate on someone's abdomen for a gunshot wound, stop the bleeding, and just send them home that afternoon.

Maybe I am just in a fussy mood because I was up all night working on one and am tired.

 

[Art Eatman]

1. Check out Tamara's blog for some comments.

2. Good subject for APS.

Art