September 24, 2009
Illegals demand free health care

Posted at 12:07 pm, in: Immigration
Tags: Bernard Taylor, Fulton County Superior Court, Grady Memorial Hospital, Illegal Immigration, Lindsay Jones, Ural Glanville

So, illegal immigrants think they have a right to break into our country and then receive free medical services once they are in? And, they say Americans have a sense of entitlement!

Publicly funded Grady Memorial Hospital has served as a lifeline for this city’s indigent for more than a century, but a plan to shutter its dialysis clinic has sparked a lawsuit on behalf of dozens of undocumented immigrants who say the decision amounts to a death sentence.

The case in Fulton County Superior Court throws into sharp relief some of the hottest issues in ongoing skirmishes over health care and the government’s role in providing medical services: how and whether undocumented aliens should receive free treatment, and how far hospitals must go to provide lifesaving care for them.

“The issue is, do my clients have a fundamental right to life?” said Lindsay Jones, an attorney for the plaintiffs, during a packed hearing before Judge Ural Glanville on Wednesday.

Mr. Jones said one elderly patient, a partially paralyzed and undocumented immigrant from Colombia who was wheeled into the courtroom on a bed, recently returned from Florida after being told he wasn’t immediately eligible for regular dialysis treatment there. He had been receiving such treatment at Grady.

Bernard Taylor, a lawyer for Grady, told the judge that the charity hospital can no longer afford to provide regular dialysis treatment for the slightly fewer than 100 patients of the clinic. He said the clinic is posting annual losses of about $2 million and would require another $2 million to bring the facility up to date even though it serves a tiny portion of the hospital’s patient base.

Mr. Taylor said Grady has taken steps to help about 90% of the patients find alternative care and is committed to finding solutions for the remaining patients, who require dialysis to prevent kidney failure. Grady is the only large hospital in Atlanta still providing regular dialysis for undocumented immigrants — most of whom can’t afford the treatment, which typically costs a few hundred dollars a session.

Judge Glanville said he expected to rule on the matter later this week. He ordered a temporary injunction last Thursday — one day before Grady planned to close the dialysis clinic — requiring the hospital to continue providing the service until it presents “a suitable alternative treatment plan” for affected patients.

Grady estimates about two-thirds of the patients who use its dialysis clinic are undocumented immigrants without health insurance. Mexicans make up the largest single group; others are from countries including El Salvador, Nigeria, Egypt, India and Cambodia.

Like I have said before, death is the risk that illegal immigrants take when they decide to enter our country illegally and become illegal immigrants. The absurdity of this is breathtaking! If we know these people are here illegally, why aren’t we deporting them? Has our immigration law enforcement become so lax that illegals now feel they can come out in the open and sue people for free services? They feel comfortable enough to be that blatant about their violation of our laws? That’s a problem, people.

It’s tough times and we can’t help everybody. If these people want help, they need to go back to Mexico or wherever else they came from and get it from their own government and fellow citizens. It is not our responsibility to save the world. The idea that we even have to waste tax dollars on the court proceedings for this case is ridiculous. They should round them up and send them back. They have no right to be here and no right to demand free health care.

And, by the way, unless the health care bill specifically prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving any benefits, you can expect a similar lawsuit to be brought in the future arguing they have a right to our “free” health care system. What do they care? They know that they can exploit our sympathies in order to take advantage of us. That’s what the pro-illegal immigration lobby has been doing all along. I’m sorry if I sound heartless, but we can’t save the world and we need to stop trying to. I don’t want to be giving out welfare to anyone, but as long as my government is stealing from me to do this I certainly don’t want it going to an illegal. If that means they die, so be it. If they don’t like it they can go home, wherever that may be, because this is not their home.