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GALVESTON, Texas -- The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants in order to cut costs.
The UTMB set aside about $12 million in this year's $1.4 billion annual budget to treat indigent cancer patients, but that isn't enough to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.
The medical branch laid off 381 employees last year as it dealt with inflation, state funding cuts and the growing number of Texans without health insurance.
Newsmax.com - Texas Hospital May Drop Illegals' Care (http://www.newsmax.com/us/hospital_illegal_immigrants/2007/12/02/53838.html - broken link)
GALVESTON, Texas -- The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants in order to cut costs.
The UTMB set aside about $12 million in this year's $1.4 billion annual budget to treat indigent cancer patients, but that isn't enough to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.
The medical branch laid off 381 employees last year as it dealt with inflation, state funding cuts and the growing number of Texans without health insurance.
Newsmax.com - Texas Hospital May Drop Illegals' Care (http://www.newsmax.com/us/hospital_illegal_immigrants/2007/12/02/53838.html - broken link)
I'm not surprised, especially with all the hospitals in the US that are struggling to make ends meet due to illegals. Cutting free care to illegals will save a lot of money. A sound fiscal decision, but I wish they would keep up the indigent care for citizens.
They laid off almost 400 people last year as well, I wonder how many of those jobs could have been saved if the hospital cut the illegal alien care years ago.
My parents had friends who lived right down next to the border with Mexico at Progresso. They told us how doctors were leaving the area because when illegals came across the boarder and stumbled into the local ER, they HAD to treat them AND of course these doctors weren't getting paid for their services.
It was hitting the OBs particularly hard because so many would walk across the boarder to have their children.
My parents friends were saying they were having to travel further for medical care due to these reasons.
Good and another thing the whole country should do is to stop all healthcare, except absolute emergencies, for all illegals. Absolute emergencies does not include taking care of them for colds and such.
This sets a good precedent. Hope it dominoes across the state. There is a system of community clinics set up by Bush in Texas, and evidently cannot ask or delineate who illegals are, so if they pay the $15 (or whatever) copay, they cannot be denied treatment.
GALVESTON, Texas -- The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants in order to cut costs.
The UTMB set aside about $12 million in this year's $1.4 billion annual budget to treat indigent cancer patients, but that isn't enough to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.
The medical branch laid off 381 employees last year as it dealt with inflation, state funding cuts and the growing number of Texans without health insurance.
The Illegal situation in this area has literally destroyed our Emergency Care System.
Around Midnight a year ago, I took a neighbor with chest pains to the local "private" hospital emergency room. There sitting in the waiting area was a young mother with her parents holding a little toddler claiming he had an earache. Not one of the group spoke English and the receiving nurse was refusing to consider the kid's ailment an emergency. During the entire time my neighbor was being treated, this fiasco continued in the admitting area and the Illegals refused to leave.
The admitting nurse held her ground with very basic Spanish while the family kept demanding treatment. Finally, the cops arrived and "escorted" the family out explaining to them they needed to find a doctor.
I definitely felt sorry for the little kid but the ATTITUDE and ARROGANCE of this family was ridiculous.
Next time I bet they'll avoid a Private Hospital when looking for FREE CARE!
I saw a show on PBS a while back, it detailed a story about an illegal alien from Mexico who's wife had cancer. They lived in Atlanta, and the show detailed their lives and struggles. Well, to make a long story short, the illegals were asked if they felt guilty about receiving extremely expensive, free medical care at the expense of those who paid. Their response was, that the United States is a rich country and therefore they deserved free medical care. They felt they were entitled to it and that was the reason they came to the US in the first place.
They laid off almost 400 people last year as well, I wonder how many of those jobs could have been saved if the hospital cut the illegal alien care years ago.
Exactly! How many legal citizens would still be working? What will it take? If this doesn't give reason to enforce the laws I don't know what will.
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