This article based on a study by the conservative based Rand group confirms what is being published in hospital economic journals and medical journals. I think we need immigration control for security and to assimilate new people legally and fairly. If one believes the majority of helathcare ills are caused by illegal immigrants they are mistaken:


A new report released last month in the United States concludes that illegal immigrants do not pose a disproportionate burden upon the U.S. health care system, contrary to increasingly strong rhetoric on the subject over the past two years.

In response to extremely heated political debate over immigration reform, the study was conducted to determine if illegal immigrants were, in fact, contributing to the decline of U.S. health care services.

Adult illegal immigrants tend to be younger and healthier than their legal-resident counterparts, resulting in relatively low use of health care services, according to the study. This directly contradicts many assertions repeatedly made by right-wing politicians and pundits in a strong push to impose harsh immigration reform efforts through various American governmental bodies.

Undocumented adults account for about $6.4 billion a year in national health care expenses, $1.1 billion of which is paid from public funds, according to the study by the Rand Corp., a conservative-leaning think tank. The publicly funded portion represents 1.25% of the total $88 billion in government funds spent on health care for adults other than seniors during 2000.

For comparison, the total cost of upgrades to the wall being constructed on the Mexico-United States border is currently expected to be between $30 and $36 billion and take most of the next decade.

The calculation of the cost of financing illegal immigrant health care was made by extrapolating data collected in 2000 and 2001 for a study of about 2,400 immigrants in Los Angeles County. The study did not account for what portion of the health services received that illegal immigrants paid for. Estimating the amount of health care money spent on undocumented immigrants is difficult because federal law prohibits hospital staff from asking a patient's immigration status.

Rand researchers chose to rely on the 5-year-old Los Angeles study because it contained detailed information on participants' legal or visa status, along with their health status, how much health care they used and whether they had any insurance coverage.

Of the 664 illegal immigrants in the study, 68% were uninsured. Only 19% had a chronic medical condition, compared with 38 percent of American-born adults, the study reported. About 58% of illegal immigrants reported visiting a doctor in the previous year, while 80% of adults born in the country had seen a physician.

About 11% of undocumented immigrants in the study had been hospitalized in the prior year, compared with 13% of the native-born population. Smith said undocumented women have relatively high rates of hospitalization due to childbirth.

"The public cost of immigration is not in health care," said James Smith, a senior economist at Rand and one of the study's authors. In context, the quote was specifically referring to illegal immigration in the U.S., especially of Latino immigrants from Central America and Mexico.

Health care providers that focus on low-income and immigrant populations agreed with the study's findings.

"Immigrants in general tend to be young, working people and they tend to be healthy," said Ralph Silber, executive director of the Alameda Health Consortium.

Still, Silber said, he's concerned about undocumented adults who avoid routine health care because of the cost or fear that their status may be discovered.

"It is unfair for the public to place the blame for all of societal ills -- in this case, hospital ills -- on undocumented or illegal immigrants," she said, adding that the vast majority of the country's 46 million uninsured people are native-born or legal residents. "If we were to resolve the issue, we still have major problems with our health care system.

Sam, I cannot refute this study, although, it is a very small sampling. However, I do know what is happening in my hometown, where illegal immigration is high. Our health department was set up to service low income citizens. That is no longer true. Good luck getting service there if you are not illegal. It is now cheaper to pay cash to a doctor, than to get services thru the health department, and that includes innoculations that are generally done at the health department. And because their primary physician if from the health department, and not a regular physician, they use the emergency room for all ailments when they can't get into the health department.

To top it off, those low income citizens that cannot afford to pay cash to a physician, and have no other place to go, also use the emergency room as their primary physician.

You have brought up a good point sam but 6.4 billion is no drop in the bucket two I lived in California for quite a few years doing construction 2,400 illegals , there are that many in two or three towns alone in california. I could spend the day just driving to different home depots and count up that many. Plus out of that number ya they maybe young but most gang bangers are young and get hurt quite often then a lot of those other youngens work in construction because it is the easiest way to make money under the table and there is a lot of accidents there so I find it very hard to beleave that study is acurate not even close because that is just in California now we have not even considered the rest of the states. Besides there is a lot more they are costing us in schools damage to public property etc. it cost the american tax payer about 60 billion a year with everything else added up. Now as far as the fence ya it will cost a lot but once it is built and maned with more officers the cost per year will be less than half of what they are costing us now that is if we make a massive effort to deport them. They also drop property value when is the last time you went to down town LA it looks like Tijuana Mexico I graduated Highschool in Washington state a little town called Puyallup (went back and forth between mom and dad) anyway I don't care that they moved there but you should see what it looks like now and now they have all kinds of problems. Some of it is cultural like if you go into a public bathroom and see toilet paper on the floor all over where they have wiped then threw it on the floor, that is because they do it a lot in mexico because there pulic sewer system is so bad that they don't put toilet paper down the toilet but hey that is just one of many things.

__________________
When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

Yes you both makegood points and I believe in immigration control. My point with this article was not really against the wall-it may be the right choice from a security standpoint. My real point is concerning healthcare- many believe illegals are the root cause of the current healthcare crisis in this country and that is not true. In fact they avoid the system. Oregon is a huge agricultural mecca. Many orchards hire illegals.They pay low wages, do not follow guidelines working for working with pesticides. I think these companies are abusing the system as much as any illegal-when they have an occupational accident the companies that hire and bring these workers in do not pay the medical bill.Regardless my point was not to defend illegals just to expose the smoke and mirrors that politicans try to play when faced with the cause of healthcare costs and coverage in America.

Uninsured patients are only one portion of the problem and illegals represent less then 2% of the uninsured.

Another issue is insurance companies pay physicians to deny care to clients who have paid into the system for years. Most medical bankruptcies are among insured working people

My only point was that politicians use illegals as a scapegoat to avoid solving the real healthcare issues in the country.

I agree, and I don't think that they are the only problem or even the biggest problem with our healthcare system.

I agree they use deversion tactics in hopes we don't pay attention to the crap they are doing or in this case not doing.

__________________
When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

Sam, I have admit that you are right concerning the report you posted. Yes the illegals are not tying up medical clinics in every city, but as you can see, it is a problem in other cities. I am sure that if the average citizen has his way the illegal immigration issue will be addressed soon.

As to the medical coverage problem in this country, we need to talk to the insurance companys and the hmo's before bringing a Canadain verison of health care to this country.

__________________
An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Go Sooners

More like shoot them lol

__________________
When you came into this world you cried.
Live your life so that when you die.
The world cries. the shadow

You can if you want to, but usually if they are forced to consider the patient and not the bottom line, imho health care will improve.

__________________
An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Go Sooners

Extrapolating data collected
federal law prohibits hospital staff from asking a patient's immigration status.
What the *&^%%

__________________
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson

"The conservative movement has been hijacked and turned into a globalist, interventionist, open borders ideology, which is not the conservative movement I grew up with." Pat Buchanan

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"
Thomas Jefferson