Immigration - Anyone here familiar with California's healthcare system?

[bleedingheart]

About 10 years ago I worked in the medical equipment consulting business for a company that sold software that billed medical insurers.

Many of my customers were located in California and I flew there very frequently to do training and consulting.

One of my clients was a company that distributed diabetic supplies and over lunch he told me that more than half of the people he was supplying with diabetic supplies were not legal residents of the US. Now he didn't care one way or the other because he was making money hand over fist but he told me that he wasn't sure how much longer the taxpayers in California would be willing to pay for this care when lower middle class Americans weren't eligible for programs and were paying out of pocket for the same supplies.

Another client I did a training trip for sold custom wheelchairs, they averaged around $30,000 a piece with some going as high as $50,000 depending upon what was on them, once again he stated that while he was making money hand over fist he also found that he was supplying chairs and other specialized equipment to people who were not citizens or even legal residents.

Now I am not trying to fuel the fires but having seen those situations I have to say that when you have a terribly unfair healthcare system in this country...this kind of situation fuels the anger that Average Americans have towards illegal immigrants. Are illegal immigrants the problem? I can't say they are a problem or not, however the fact that they are soooooo poor gives them access to things that hardworking americans in many cases can't have...like healthcare and that kind of disparity pisses people off.

Now as I stated it has been 10 years since I have worked in medical billing but I do keep up with my old associates and they have confirmed that the problem still remains. In California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and a host of other states...the healthcare systems are overbilling for services to compensate for losses on care they provide to illegals...and where they can they bill the state medicaid systems.

[Virginia Dare]

1. It stands to reason...

if these people aren't receiving medical care plans from their employers, they're being pushed off on the taxpaying public. No different than other low-wage paying companies like Wal-Mart.

[bleedingheart]

2. that is true and I am not saying that either situation is right...

but part of the anger towards illegals is centered on issues like healthcare...and we will see more problems with both illegals and poor americans as wages drop and more benefits are slashed....people don't stop needing healthcare when they are poor...in many cases they need it more.

[Bridget Burke]

3. I really don't know the figures....

Although your anecdotal cases are interesting.

The healthcare industry will take any excuse at all to overbill. And "illegals" aren't the only ones who don't pay.

The healthcare system needs to be overhauled. But the insurance companies, etc., would love to blame somebody else.

[bleedingheart]

4. The key issue is that until we address the unfairness in the healthcare

and provide healthcare for EVERYONE ...we have a recipe for disaster...(and that disaster is already occuring)
it also is an issue that people can point to and say...look is it fair that an illegal is receiving care when an american who makes just a few dollars over the limit to apply for medicaid can not?

I can also tell you that residents of California were getting bilked on equipment...(no matter their status)...equipment that sold for $400 in CA were going for $150 in the midwest and south....same make and model but I could never figure out that logic...

[Minnesota Libra]

5. The TRUE issue is that until we close down the borders issues like........

.....this will continue to get even worse. Yes, the insurance companies need overhauled, yes medical availability to ALL LEGAL AMERICANS should be a primary focus, yes we need better educational opportunities FOR AMERICANS, but not to illegal aliens.

Today's immigration battle
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0329-21.htm

[EFerrari]

11. Let me get this straight. You want undocumented workers

to clean your hospitals, staff your nursing homes, provide affordable in home care but when they get sick, they can go f#ck themselves?

And, by the way, "legal Americans" is an oxymoron unless your last name is Sitting Bull -- which for all I know, it may be.

This is a nation of immigrants, in case you haven't noticed.

Geezus. I have to start hiding these horrible threads.

[Minnesota Libra]

12. No, I do NOT want illegal aliens doing all the jobs you mentioned, I......

......want illegal aliens to go home. Yes, you are right, my family were immigrants as well - LEGAL IMMIGRANTS - there is a huge difference.

I really don't mind Mexican immigrants coming here - I don't want ILLEGAL ALIENS coming here now or ever.

[Kindigger]

6. At the moment

I have a good friend, originally from Montana, who is in a CA hospital. His 85 year old mother in MT, his only relative. The truck he drove out of a CA terminal was his home. He has no health insurance. His employer doesn't provide it. He collapsed unconscious, face first onto a cement floor.

Not wanting to worry me (not notifying me) he had a heart procedure on Monday that was successful to the extent that he is still alive, but no longer able to drive a truck. The way his heart is working right now, he may not be able to work at all.

Since an hour after surgery he's been visited several times by the social worker who's trying to decide if he's eligible for help with his rising bill. From what you've just said, I can imagine how that's going. He is such a proud person, and a hard worker who would shovel shit before asking for help. I don't even want to think about how humiliating this is for him.

By Monday he'll be sent out the door into the street. I hope he's got a final check coming. I don't know what to do. I'm stuck between letting him find his own way, and going out to get him. I don't know if he'll be eligible for anything here right away, and I'm afraid the humiliation of me helping him on my $600 disability check will kill him. :cry:

[MsUnderstood]

7. here are some things that happen in California

1) If you are BORN in American you are a citizen. So there are cases where pregnant women come to America illegally, give birth and create a legal citizen of America.

2) Once you are a citizen you have EVERY RIGHT TO HEALTHCARE as any other citizen (i.e. Medi-cal, California's version of Medicaid). That means those children born have the right to healthcare. Their parents can also get limited medical aid in order to ensure a healthy birth.

3) Every child in California, legal or not can get immunization. Does this make sense? Why pay for the illegal immigrants? Because you DO NOT want to spread communicable diseases to the citizens of America. If a person is here in California, it makes more sense to give them a vacination then send them to school and have them catch a disease that then spreads to other non immunized kids.

There is a limit to how much you can ignore the health care of illegal immigrants before you endanger the Americans who live here. You have to provide health care to those who show up in the emergency room because if they have a communicable disease and you do not treat them, that disease will spread to others.

[Sapere aude]

8. I'm having a hard time believing your stories.

Check me if I am wrong here. California pays for the medical equipment through medical. To get medical you have to apply. To qualify for for have to be a citizen. A doctor has to prescribe the wheel chair or medical device. The doctor submits the claim to medical. Medical has something called a TAR that is a check to see if the person really needs the wheel chair or device.

I don't see how a medical supplier can supply a wheelchair to an illegal immigrant and have medical pay for it given the above requirements.

Help me out here, what am I missing?

[FredScuttle]

9. One question

"however the fact that they are soooooo poor gives them access to things that hardworking americans in many cases can't have"

Are you saying illegal immigrants aren't hardworking?

[bemildred]

10. Bwaaahaaahaaahaa,

Yep, the illegal workers are making the poor, well-meaning medical corporations overbill.
What a pantload.