On Aug 15, 9:55*am, > wrote:
> Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
>
> In California, Funding Is at Stake for a Clinic That Treats Patients No
> Matter Their Status; An Issue 'No One Wants to Touch'
>
> By MIRIAM JORDAN
>
> VALLEJO, Calif. -- A health clinic in this blue-collar city north of
> Oakland, partly funded by the county, is saving local hospitals
> thousands of dollars in emergency-room visits by treating uninsured
> patients who suffer only non-urgent ailments.
>
> A watchdog group is now calling on county officials to cut funding for
> clinic patients who can't prove they are in the U.S. legally, a debate
> certain to surface in the national health-care overhaul.
>
> With congressional proposals already stirring raw emotions, few
> supporters are eager to add the incendiary issue of illegal immigration.
> A provision in the House's health-care-overhaul bill rules out federal
> funding for illegal immigrants.
>
> But in many ways, illegal immigration is at the nexus of two key health
> issues: the uninsured and ballooning costs.
>
> Roughly half of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. don't have
> health insurance, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan
> research group. Like others who can't afford medical care, illegal
> immigrants tend to flock to hospital emergency rooms, which, under a
> 1986 law, can't turn people away, even if they can't pay. Emergency-room
> visits, where treatment costs are much higher than in clinics, jumped
> 32% nationally between 1996 and 2006, the latest data available.
>
> The role illegal immigrants play in U.S. health-care costs is "one hot
> button that no one wants to touch," says Stephen Zuckerman, an economist
> at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
>
> Sutter Solano Medical Center Chief Executive Terry Glubka wasn't looking
> to enter the immigration debate when she started lobbying for a clinic
> in 2006. She was trying to balance her hospital's budget. Between 2000
> and 2006, Solano County saw a 13.1% increase in total emergency-room
> visits, more than twice the state average. Nearly 80% of the visits
> weren't urgent.
>
> During 2006, the hospital had to write off $12 million in "charity care"
> -- or services provided to low-income patients who couldn't pay their
> bills. The charity helped create a $4 million budget shortfall that
> year.
>
> "They were getting the most-expensive care for what should be treated in
> a primary-care facility," Ms. Glubka says.
>
> She began shopping the idea of a clinic for low-income residents. Sutter
> and another nearby hospital, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, each
> committed $100,000 annually over three years. Solano County's board of
> supervisors voted 5-0 in 2008 to contribute $250,000.
>
> Ms. Glubka enlisted the help of La Clínica de La Raza Inc., a network of
> 27 nonprofit community clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area. The clinic
> opened last November, down the street from Sutter hospital.
>
> Sutter hospital's emergency-room staff now refer about 60 patients a
> month to La Clínica. With a basic examination at Sutter hospital costing
> about $500 -- and often going unpaid by poor patients -- that is the
> equivalent of $30,000 in routine emergency-visit charges that would
> otherwise be written off as charity.
>
> La Clínica charges $85.50 per consultation; low-income patients are
> charged less.
>
> "If we didn't have La Clínica, we'd be in much worse shape," says Angie
> Hammons, Sutter's emergency-room manager.
>
> One of the clinic's new patients is Evelia Lopez, 51, who had been
> visiting the emergency room to treat chronic back pain after a slip at
> work. About two-fifths of the clinic's patients are Hispanic, while
> about a quarter of the patients are African-American; one-fifth are
> white.
>
> Along with their medical history, new patients are asked their income to
> determine what pay on a sliding fee scale.
>
> As in emergency rooms, patients aren't asked about their immigration
> status.
>
> Costs at such primary-care centers are probably 10% to 15% the cost of
> treatment in a hospital emergency room, says Paul Mango, head of the
> health-care practice at McKinsey & Co.
>
> Residents have since complained to a 19-member county-appointed watchdog
> group about taxpayer money La Clínica going to health care for people
> living in the U.S. illegally. Neither the clinic nor the Sutter
> emergency room ask people their immigration status.
>
> "All we can ask them is their name, date of birth and chief complaint,"
> says Ms. Hammons, the Sutter emergency-department manager. "Heavens, we
> don't deny anybody treatment. You are required to see anyone who shows
> up at the emergency department."
>
> Mike Reagan, a Solano County supervisor who originally voted for the
> clinic's funding, now says the facility should erect a "firewall" to
> prevent taxpayer money from going to illegal immigrants. "I'm not in
> favor of rewarding illegal behavior in any form," he says.
>
> The report from the watchdog, released three weeks ago, recommends that
> Solano County require that public contributions to the clinic "be
> limited to serving only Solano County residents who have proof of
> citizenship or legal residency."
>
> The county's board of supervisors and health director have 90 days to
> respond. County health director Patrick Duterte says he is bent on
> keeping the clinic open.
>
> "My position is that to have a healthy community we can't have a subset
> of people who don't have access to health care," says Mr. Duterte. "It's
> bad public-health policy." Health experts say that giving undocumented
> immigrants medical care can prevent the spread of illnesses.
>
> Meantime, the clinic has extended its hours to keep pace with swelling
> demand. "We're swamped," says Monique Sims, the clinic's manager.
>
> Write to Miriam Jordan at
> Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4
>
> Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company

Not one penny for illegal alien heath care. Email your people in
Congress:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

rick