OK lets put the conjecture aside - your hypothesis - floodgates open to immigrants good for the nation, not costly on our healthcare system - a net positive in fact given what they will bring in output - you have provided one study to the affirmative. A good scientist also looks for data to falsify his own theory. Have you searched for any data to falsify your assumption? Or do you only support views that affirm your agenda? I take the opposite view, am going to news.google.com and type in "immigrant healthcare" - let's see what mqurices favorite "brain" can find for us positive or negative to support or refute the hypothesis. I will post the negative and positive I find there wether it supports my assumption or not.
mydna.com First link - from news.google.com - Didn't see this posted from the original poster here on SI - wonder why??
These figures seem to dispel the theory that immigrant healthcare represents a significant detriment to the healthcare system, as some believe the demographic is to blame for escalating healthcare costs.
Yet some immigration experts reject the notion that immigrants do not serve as a burden to the healthcare industry.
Their contention, led by Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, is that tighter immigration procedures need to be implemented on the U.S. borders so that legal immigrants can receive the appropriate healthcare. Without these restrictions, Camarota believes that these uninsured immigrants will continue to drive up the cost of healthcare.
"The fact that immigrants, when uninsured, might use 27 percent less medical care doesn't change the fact that they're 200 percent more likely to be uninsured in the first place."
Second Link from the great GOOGLE brain:
medicalnewstoday.com
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights News Coverage of State Medicaid Programs, USA
29 Jul 2005
The following summarizes news of recent developments in Medicaid programs in five states.
Maryland lawmakers and health advocates on Tuesday during a hearing of the state House and Senate joint subcommittee that oversees state Medicaid spending said state budget cuts to an immigrant health program will end up being costly for the state and putting children at risk for health complications because their mothers did not receive proper prenatal care, the Baltimore Sun reports (Green, Baltimore Sun, 7/27). Although some of the proposed cuts have been restored, some lawmakers said the state should do more to protect the health of immigrant pregnant women and children (Otto, Washington Post, 7/27). Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) last week announced plans to restore $1.5 million to the state Medicaid program to continue health care coverage for pregnant permanent legal immigrants. Ehrlich in his fiscal year 2006 budget proposal recommended cutting $7 million from a state Medicaid program that provides health coverage for legal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for less than five years. State lawmakers subsequently
It seems they want to cut money for LEGAL immigrants, nothing of the illegals, and those children and mothers who don't get care or do any type of preventative maintenance will not be a burder later on the system eh?
ALso from that same link regarding those STUDIES by government bodies you think so highly of:
Tennessee: Former TennCare pharmacy director Leo Sullivan on July 14 testified in federal court that Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) and his administration created a private funding arrangement for a 2003 TennCare study by consulting group McKinsey that allowed the consultant to avoid the competitive bidding process required for studies that are financed by the state, the Tennessean reports. Sullivan testified that Bredesen wanted to ensure McKinsey was awarded the contract and that Manny Martins -- the director of TennCare at the time -- suggested to Bredesen that he should seek funding from private health care companies so the contract would not have to go through the bidding process. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, HCA Healthcare, the Tennessee Hospital Association and Vanderbilt University all contributed to the fund for the study, the Tennessean reports. The contract was established between McKinsey and Vanderbilt, with the university acting as custodian of the money through an escrow account. Administration officials said the study was privately financed to save the state money by avoiding the bidding process (Schrade, Tennessean, 7/27).
Now I am not as smart as GOOG brain - but things are not looking so hot for your study and the misguided TRUST you place in them to me.
Let us go further - what else does the mighty GOOG have to say:
americanchronicle.com
This link supports your hypothesis - notice he does not post the negative info from above - funny how all these people pick and choose what they are going to read or believe - but his article does say this:
According to Mohanty, the research team launched the study to combat the belief that immigrants take advantage of the American health-care system. “ We thought there were a lot of popular misconceptions," she said.
Well right there this scientist is looking for affirmatives to her agenda - did she also look to falsify her own claims?
The researchers looked at the results of a 1998 federal survey of more than 21,000 people, including more than 2,800 immigrants. The findings appear in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
That data is pretty old, that is what I said earlier to anacrhonist about government studies - sometimes they are very incapable of measuring reality because reality changes too fast.
Mohanty's team found that immigrants accounted for an average of $1,582 in health costs per year, compared to $2,005 for the native-born. When the researchers adjusted their figures to take into account possible differences between the two groups due to factors such as age and health status, that gap widened to $1,139 for immigrants and $2,546 for the U.S.-born. Furthermore, a full 30 percent of immigrants used no health care at all in the course of the average year.”[3]
Ok so the old americans are getting costly and the young immigrants that are migrating are mostly younger - so we are getting the young and dumb eh? hehe Is this legal, illegal or all immigrants? 30 percent use NO healtcare - they will not be a burdern at the emergency room eh - you said to take the meds huh? How can they afford them - they have NO healthcare :( States are wanting to cut what little they DO have - import more brudders senore!! La vida loca man!! They will pay for themselves in the long run!!
The next link is about walmart and immigrants:
yesweekly.com
It goes into all these immigrants walmart can't afford to pay or give healthcare too - they are saving so much money from the work of cheap immigrants, and cheap immigrants have such lower healthcare costs - I wonder why? HMMM. They mention poland and slovakia immigrants as well as mexican. THe only way I see walmart being able to compete with third world labor is to become third world - looks like they are doing it.
Next link is about latvia - we are looking at US immigration so I will skip it.
Next link
illinois.gov
Illinois response to immigrants - bring over immigrant nurses - I support this and have already commented we need education outside our borders before we bring them here. What is your take tooearly?
SB 1842 establishes a first-in-the-nation externship program for registered nurses licensed under the laws of another state or territory of the United States who wish to practice in Illinois and are preparing to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). The law will allow these nurses, primarily from Puerto Rico, to work under the direct supervision of a registered professional nurse licensed in Illinois while they are enrolled in a course which prepares them for the state exam and acclimates them to nursing and health care delivery in our state. In conjunction with SB 2064, it will increase diversity within the nursing profession and prepare nurses educated in a U.S. territory for practice in Illinois. The law, which becomes effective immediately, was sponsored by State Representative Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) and State Senator Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago).
“Creating opportunities for nurses trained in U.S. territories will increase access to quality health care in communities across the state. Through the use of externships, we not only have more nurses working in Illinois, we can be sure they are well trained and fully qualified,” said Rep. Soto.
“There is a critical need for health care providers sensitive to the needs of minority and immigrant communities in Illinois. By offering hands-on training at some of our State’s finest institutions, we’ll be able to offer new opportunities to nurses trained in U.S. territories and other states,” said Sen. Del Valle.
Next link - these are sorted by relevance and are all very recent:
chicagodefender.com
Rising immigrant births in U.S. boost need for delivery-room translators
by Cara Anna
July 25, 2005
UTICA, N.Y. - With nearly one in four American births now to a foreign-born mother, pressure is growing on health care centers to not only deliver babies, but deliver in more languages than one.
A report issued earlier this month by the Center for Immigration Studies says as of 2002, 23 percent of all births in the U.S. were to immigrant mothers. Births to Hispanic mothers accounted for 59 percent of those.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says hospitals that get federal money must provide interpreter services. It just doesn't say how. Most hospitals reach out with phone-based interpretation services. But critics say the phone has limitations, especially during childbirth.
Cornelia Brown, left, executive director of the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters, talks with Lul Mohamed, a Somalian, a translator at the maternity ward of the St. Luke's Campus of Faxton-St. Luke's Healthcare, on Wednesday, July 13, in Utica, N.Y. Almost one in four American births is now to a foreign-born mother, according to the latest figures. The result, medical experts say, is growing pressure on American health care centers to not only deliver babies, but deliver them in more languages than one. AP/Jim McKnight
I already said this is a cost in palm beach county - 2 languages between 2 cultures makes meshing very hard and burns through a generation of productivity just getting everyone talking the same tongue.
"What, are they going to pass the receiver back and forth while the doctor is catching the baby?" asked Dr. Francesca Gany, director of the Center for Immigrant Health at the New York University School of Medicine. "Health care facilities are definitely feeling the heat."
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is studying the link between medical error and interpretation issues, Gany said. And the National Health Law Program is looking at how small health care providers can offer language services. A report by the Washington-based Institute of Medicine said 56 percent of such providers surveyed had received no language training.
Though studies are underway, there are no national numbers for access to, or use of, interpreter services in health care. But there are some telling samples.
One hospital in Madison, Wis., said requests for interpreters more than doubled, to more than 4,000 requests a year, between 2000 and 2003. In Columbus, Ohio, Children's Hospital in 2002 had almost 8,000 requests for interpreters.
A survey of New Jersey's hospitals shows that in a largely urban state where 11 percent of residents have limited English, just 3 percent of hospitals have a full-time interpreter. Eighty percent of hospitals offer no staff training on working with interpreters, and 31 percent have no multilingual signs.
Cost is a barrier and most hospitals told the New Jersey survey that reimbursement for translation services is needed. A 2002 study by the National Association of Children's Hospitals found interpreting costs at 22 hospitals ranged from $1,800 to $847,000 per year.
THose immigrants are going to give more back than they cost though - so why aren't the policy makers spending the money? It grows on immigrant trees right?
The alternatives to a trained translator can be, and have been, a Spanish-speaking janitor pulled into the delivery room, said Dr. Portia Jones, an assistant professor at Albany Medical Center in New York.
Jones oversees a pilot interpreting program for the center's medical students. In a city of just under 100,000, the program includes about 30 volunteers who speak Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Polish and other languages.
"This seems like such a no-brainer," Jones said. But change comes slowly.
Nancy Kohn, field coordinator for the Boston-based The Access Project, said some people have told her that if they don't speak English at hospitals, they don't get seen. The project focuses on improving health care for underserved populations.
When all else fails, children themselves have stepped in. One interpreter group does a presentation titled, "Can my 7-year-old interpret for me in the delivery room?"
Utica's number of refugees per capita, 10,000 in a city of 60,000, is one of the highest in the country. The Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters in Utica contracts with about 40 interpreters in 14 languages and arranges about 600 interpreting sessions a month, triple the number in 2002.
Even with such numbers, the lack of interpreters at Utica-area hospitals brought complaints less than two years ago, but in unusually polite terms.
Translated from Russian, one woman's letter reads, "I appeal to the employees of the maternity ward, please be so kind in the future as to provide all non-English-speaking women giving birth with a trained interpreter, especially during their hour of their greatest need and trial. Again, thank you very much for all your care and concern."
The woman had consented to an operation on her fetus, but without quite understanding why.
What a time to be in confusion without being able to communicate.
The rest of the articles seem to trail off. Now I invite you to come to talk to immigrants in palm beach county, and I want you to ask them - in thier foriegn tongue if you can - why they are being so mean to the very newly immigrated - things are going to be better in palm beach county with the influx and wide open floodgates - they don't think that now. |
