Queens Crap: Free health care for all

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Free health care for all - and we're paying

From the Wall Street Journal:

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 other half get their insurance through identity theft.)

16 comments:

Anonymous said...: It seems to me that we are already paying for the health care of all those, whether they are here with documentation or not, who do not have insurance, so how will covering the undocumented change that exactly?; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anonymous said...: If the undocumented were provided insurance maybe some would stop using emergency rooms and go to clinics for their healthcare instead. If that happens, healthcare costs to taxpayers will decrease, following logic of WSJ article. That would be good for everyone, so why are some citizens so against providing health care coverage for the undocumented.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Queens Crapper said...: Very simply, deny them the insurance and repeal the 1986 law that says ERs have to treat them for every little thing. Then they'll have to go back home or cough up the cash. If it is a true life or death emergency, then treat them, if they have a cold or a sore throat, turn them away.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anonymous said...: But what if that cold or sore throat turns out to be swine flu or something even more contagious. Left untreated it could become a citywide epidemic and a much more expensive public health emergency. Penny wise pound foolish.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Queens Crapper said...: They weren't giving tests for swine flu at the ER unless they thought it likely that you had it, remember? They even turned Americans away on that one. Failed argument.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anonymous said...: Repeal the 1986 law and they will all go home. How much longer can the taxpayer afford to pay for illegal's insurance? The government is in trouble now because people who footed the bill are now out of work themselves. Stop rewarding these criminals for bad behavior. Cut them off and they will go elsewhere. Medicaid and Medicare are a mess because of all these freeloaders.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Carly said...: Undocumented immigrants are not going to emergency rooms for colds or sore throats. They, like many "Native Americans" can't afford to lose a day off from work because of our nation's backwards health care system. We're one of the only industrialized nations not to have a national healthcare system.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!

Because it is the right thing to do.

And for those who somehow think this is socialist -- how is this any different from socialized police proection, fire protection and public schools?; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anonymous said...: It's not just illegals. Do you think yor local drug dealer or other criminal has health care?; Sunday, August 16, 2009
ew-3 said...: "how is this any different from socialized police proection, fire protection and public schools?"

Have you ever noticed the politicians almost never send their kids to public schools and have bodyguards assigned to them?
And guess what. They won't be using the same health care us mere mortals will be stuck with. Just like they don't have to endure the security absurdities at airports.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
georgetheatheist said...: "The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach and fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law." - From Galt's speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

"...-how is this different from socialized police proetection [sic],fire protection and public schools?"

I prefer the term collectivism.

Police protection is valid. Fire protection? Maybe. (As you may know fire companies have a long history of being in private ownership and voluntary organization). Public schools? A resounding "no". (I'm surprised that the African-American/Latino "communities" haven't taken the elite public high schools -Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bx HS of Science to court yet for racial imbalance due to the "over" representation of Asian students. What are they waiting for?)

Collectivist "health care"? Give me a break.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
linda said...: health insurance for all american citizens! end of story...
this is why our country is falling apart due to the liberals and why can't they get free insurance. NO! only the ones who are here legally and paying taxes.; Sunday, August 16, 2009
georgetheatheist said...: A government "governs". A government does not "insure".; Sunday, August 16, 2009
Anonymous said...: georgetheatheist is at it again... fetishizing Rand. How can you call yourself an atheist when you deify a mediocre novelist and inferior philosopher?

If you don't want your government "insuring," then you must reject its attempt to insure your safety (police and fire), your mobility (roadways), and your education. There is no picking and choosing. If you want government to provide services, then you have to accept the services that you DON'T value as well as those you DO value. You may be selfish, but not everyone is so immature.; Monday, August 17, 2009
Anonymous said...: Not true. We don't "have to accept" what our government does. Welfare? I don't collect it.

The good news is that Obama seems to have caved on this one and is now saying the health care does not have to be government run.; Monday, August 17, 2009
Anonymous said...: Hey "Atheist"--do you realize how much your Uncle Sam insures? Nice to know that you can keep up with those pretentious Ayn Rand novels because FDIC protects that magnificent bank account of yours. What about all that government money that gets divvied up after a natural disaster to help homeowners? There was also federal insurance for the widows of the law enforcement officers who died at the WTC. Would you have deprived these families of that money? No doubt, there is NO virtue in selfishness, as you preach.

The problem here is that a benefit intended for a certain group is being stretched to the limits and beyond by abuse and politicians refuse to re-examine laws that have outlived their purpose. The rotten employers who ply these illegals for cheap labor are the number one culprits in this sorry scenario.; Monday, August 17, 2009
georgetheatheist said...: T. Jefferson redacts the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and Governmental Insurance."; Tuesday, August 18, 2009