Calif. counties cutting healthcare to illegal immigrants

[one...two...tree 2,762]

With budget problems afflicting counties across the state, some have begun eliminating healthcare to illegal immigrants. Critics say this will just further burden hospital emergency rooms.

By Anna Gorman

Forced to slash their budgets, some California counties are eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants -- a move that officials acknowledge could backfire by shifting the financial burden to emergency rooms.

Sacramento County voted in February to bar illegal immigrants from county clinics at an estimated savings of $2.4 million. Contra Costa County followed last month by cutting off undocumented adults, to save approximately $6 million. And Yolo County is voting on a similar change next month, which would reduce costs by $1.2 million.

"This is a way for us to get through what I think is a horrible year for healthcare in California," said William Walker, director of Contra Costa Health Services.

Walker said the national ambivalence on immigration policy means that illegal immigrants are living here but without federal or state funding to provide essential medical services to them. Walker, who began his medical career treating undocumented farmworkers, said that deciding to cut their services was difficult.

"This is the community of people we have all relied upon for decades, providing work not only in construction but in service and child care," he said. "We all live and work here together."

As the recession continues, property tax revenue decreases and the number of newly uninsured patients increases, other county health departments in California and the nation may make similar changes, said Robert Pestronk, executive director of the National Assn. of County and City Health Officials.

"Communities are having to make excruciating decisions about the services they fund," he said.

But Pestronk said that shifting costs isn't the answer.

"This is a balloon that just expands," he said. "If you squeeze it in one place, it's just going to expand somewhere else."

John Schunhoff, Los Angeles County's interim health services department director, said there is no plan to eliminate health services to the county's illegal residents, despite significant projected deficits and concern about further cuts in state funding.

Eliminating illegal immigrants from health services may enable counties to balance their budgets this year but won't solve the problem in the long term, said David Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine and director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture.

"We are mortgaging the future to scrape through the present," he said.

And study after study shows that illegal immigrants are less likely than U.S.-born residents to go to the doctor or seek regular medical care, he said.

Anti-illegal immigration activist Barbara Coe said she was thrilled that counties are beginning to restrict services. Coe's group, California Coalition for Immigration Reform, sponsored Proposition 187, the initiative that tried to bar the state from providing public services to illegal immigrants before it died in federal court.

Illegal immigrants "have absolutely no right, No. 1, to be here and, No. 2, to take the tax dollars of law-abiding American taxpayers for anything," she said.

But the policy changes have angered immigrant rights advocates, who argue that restrictions could also cause a chilling effect on legal residents and U.S. citizens in mixed-status families.

"Even those people who qualify to get care won't," said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center.

Shamasunder also said that denying healthcare to one segment of the population puts everyone else at risk as communicable diseases go untreated and emergency rooms become even more crowded.

Jose Suarez, who has asthma, said he now plans to go to the hospital if he gets sick. Suarez, 25, was born in Mexico but has been living in Contra Costa County for 10 years.

"It's unfair," he said. "We are real people. I understand they have to cut a few things here and there, but I believe they can do better."

Marina Espinoza, also an illegal immigrant in Contra Costa County, said she visits a county clinic a few times a month to monitor her diabetes and high blood pressure so that she doesn't end up in the hospital. Espinoza is considering returning to Mexico, where a relative has a lead on a job with health insurance.

"None of us choose to get sick," said Espinoza, 39. "I can't afford the medications. How can I pay for that? It's that or rent."

Before changing its policy on illegal immigrants, Sacramento County took several other steps to reduce healthcare costs, including closing three of its six clinics. But that wasn't enough, said Keith Andrews, chief of primary health services in the Department of Health and Human Services. Andrews said he was left with a choice between firing staff or reducing the number of patients. The county is continuing to treat everyone for communicable diseases.

Andrews said about 4,000 people without legal residency or citizenship were receiving healthcare in the county. Although some are immigrants who have lived and worked in the area for years, he said, others are foreign natives who came to the county to receive free medical treatment.

"This decision is going to impact all of our community," he said. "It's going to create other social problems because of the impact on emergency rooms."

In Contra Costa County, which will continue treating undocumented children and pregnant women, community groups mobilized against the proposal. They helped persuade county officials to allocate additional funds to the nonprofit community clinics to help treat the 5,500 undocumented patients who will no longer be eligible for county services.

Those patients will receive primary care at the clinics, but they won't have a place to go if they need to see a specialist, such as for cancer or heart problems.

"It's a major gap," said Soren Tjernell of the Community Clinic Consortium, which represents clinics in Contra Costa and Solano counties.

Yolo County's proposal, which goes before its Board of Supervisors on May 5, would affect about 1,200 undocumented patients. Joseph Iser, who heads the county health department, said he wished that he had another source of revenue to continue services for illegal immigrants.

"Except by helping us balance the budget, it doesn't help us, it doesn't help our citizens, it doesn't help our undocumented," he said. "But if we don't have the money, we just can't afford it."

anna.gorman@latimes.com

[tallcoolone 102]

Great Step Forward

If they can just figure out how to keep these law breakers out of the Emergency Room

Then I would be jumping for joy.

Illegals take so much advantage of health care and public schools in USA it's unreal............

[mawilson 2,133]

Eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants?

What, they actually had those???

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants?

What, they actually had those???

Yeah, sorta. For the uninsured in this county, if you are legal and go to the ER for nonemergency care, they will refer you to county health services. If you need emergency care, they will stabilize you, and dump you on county services. If you are illegal, they will treat you.

[MichelleN 0]

Illegal immigrants can get healthcare here in Oregon. When I applied for my daughter, one of the requirements stated that I had to show proof of US Citizenship. However, if the applicant was not a legal citizen, no proof was necessary. That didn't make much sense to me. If they don't care if you're legal or not, why make the real citizens prove they're legal?

[tallcoolone 102]

Illegal immigrants can get healthcare here in Oregon. When I applied for my daughter, one of the requirements stated that I had to show proof of US Citizenship. However, if the applicant was not a legal citizen, no proof was necessary. That didn't make much sense to me. If they don't care if you're legal or not, why make the real citizens prove they're legal?

I think I know the answer.

In Dallas our County Hospital is Parkland.

That is where all the illegals go for medical treatment, they go for minor cuts and cold and flu mainly.

A portion of one Property Tax pays for Parkland.

Now if you go there and you are white, they make you give all type of information, Address, ID, Etc. and after services is rendered you will receive a bill in the mail to pay.

Now on the other hand if you are Illegal, they treat you and let it slide.

Now some of the legal hispanics in Dallas, have learned to dress down, and go to Parkland for free Medical.

[Nagishkaw 510]

A portion of one Property Tax pays for Parkland.

0mgksjfireyjodsfkvnaopifjweg !!!!!!

[Peikko 1,575]

The US is a civilized society, it doesn't just let people die in the streets (well not openly any way). These people will get treated one way or another and with a flu epidemic possibly on the way, this is not really a great time to overburden the ER rooms, now is it?

Illegal immigrants can get healthcare here in Oregon. When I applied for my daughter, one of the requirements stated that I had to show proof of US Citizenship. However, if the applicant was not a legal citizen, no proof was necessary. That didn't make much sense to me. If they don't care if you're legal or not, why make the real citizens prove they're legal?

To put you in the system so the insurance company gets their remuneration. It's really not that hard to understand.

[MichelleN 0]

The US is a civilized society, it doesn't just let people die in the streets (well not openly any way). These people will get treated one way or another and with a flu epidemic possibly on the way, this is not really a great time to overburden the ER rooms, now is it?

Illegal immigrants can get healthcare here in Oregon. When I applied for my daughter, one of the requirements stated that I had to show proof of US Citizenship. However, if the applicant was not a legal citizen, no proof was necessary. That didn't make much sense to me. If they don't care if you're legal or not, why make the real citizens prove they're legal?

To put you in the system so the insurance company gets their remuneration. It's really not that hard to understand.

I understand that your information has to be put into the system. But why make me provide a US birth certificate for my daughter to prove her citizenship if they're going to give her insurance, legal or not?

[justashooter 430]

The US is a civilized society, it doesn't just let people die in the streets (well not openly any way).

now that's a naive statement.

[Peikko 1,575]

Naive in simplicity of course, but the truth is that most Americans do not want to see people dying in the streets from disease so they put up with the inconvenience of paying for the treatment of anyone, regardless of ability to pay and in fact legal status.

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

Naive in simplicity of course, but the truth is that most Americans do not want to see people dying in the streets from disease so they put up with the inconvenience of paying for the treatment of anyone, regardless of ability to pay and in fact legal status.

ah they can at least roll off into the ditches in their last moments so they don't impede traffic.

[Peikko 1,575]

The US is a civilized society, it doesn't just let people die in the streets (well not openly any way). These people will get treated one way or another and with a flu epidemic possibly on the way, this is not really a great time to overburden the ER rooms, now is it?

Illegal immigrants can get healthcare here in Oregon. When I applied for my daughter, one of the requirements stated that I had to show proof of US Citizenship. However, if the applicant was not a legal citizen, no proof was necessary. That didn't make much sense to me. If they don't care if you're legal or not, why make the real citizens prove they're legal?

To put you in the system so the insurance company gets their remuneration. It's really not that hard to understand.

I understand that your information has to be put into the system. But why make me provide a US birth certificate for my daughter to prove her citizenship if they're going to give her insurance, legal or not?

To prove that she is who you say she is. The insurance companies have a duty to their company to ensure that claims to insurance are legitimate. They do not want to be burdened with paying for anyone but they will pay for those that have a legitimate claim - if they have to.

[Peikko 1,575]

Naive in simplicity of course, but the truth is that most Americans do not want to see people dying in the streets from disease so they put up with the inconvenience of paying for the treatment of anyone, regardless of ability to pay and in fact legal status.

ah they can at least roll off into the ditches in their last moments so they don't impede traffic.

I don't believe for one moment that you would in fact watch someone dying - most people would feel extremely uncomfortable doing so - it's called empathy. Only someone with a sociopath mentality would enjoy the suffering of others and someone bordering on the same would be indifferent.

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

Naive in simplicity of course, but the truth is that most Americans do not want to see people dying in the streets from disease so they put up with the inconvenience of paying for the treatment of anyone, regardless of ability to pay and in fact legal status.

ah they can at least roll off into the ditches in their last moments so they don't impede traffic.

I don't believe for one moment that you would in fact watch someone dying - most people would feel extremely uncomfortable doing so - it's called empathy. Only someone with a sociopath mentality would enjoy the suffering of others and someone bordering on the same would be indifferent.