36 sites, 12,306 entries and counting...     Get a free blog; Join a Weblog Network!

Immigrants, Sick and Uninsured Being Sent Home

May 22, 2008 · Filed Under Health Care 

94694603_4a364d38a0_m.jpg    Immigrants who are ill and are uninsured are being sent back to their home countries, whether they are here legally or illegally.

Hospitals in Arizona are routinely sending ill patients back to their countries of origin for treatment because of a law that says they are not eligible for medicaid. They say that after they treat the patients some of them need to go to the next level of care and long term care facilities require payments of a year in advance. The immigrants can’t afford that and are being sent back, most against their will. The police have stopped some of these transfers and lawyers are trying to block others.

These hospitals are sometimes paying from between 20,000 and 100,000 dollars to charter the medical helicopters and fly these people home.

Comments

Leave a Reply