12 year old Felipe Gomez was playing with matches, burning an ant hill with gasoline, and this resulted in burning 25% of his body. Felipe lives in Sonora, Mexico. He was taken to Maricopa Medical Center which has a great reputation for their burn unit. At last count his medical bills topped $250,000. Felipe has no health insurance, forcing the hospital to pass on the costs to the insured, as well as writing off a portion as debt.
What is important to point out is that Felipe burned himself in 2003, this didn’t just happen the other day. Arizona and many other states have had to face the illegal immigration problem for many years, and the medical costs associated with this problem. Many states and cities such as Arizona, Los Angeles, New York, and Texas have budget shortfalls that will take decades to balance, a sizable portion attributable to illegal immigration. In Vegas there is one hospital that spends $2 million a month giving dialysis to 81 illegal immigrants.
So what’s my point? Everyone knows that taxpayers are flipping the bill for the uninsured and illegal immigrants, spending at least an additional $1100 per family, per year, in higher health insurance premiums. I’m not divulging anything new here, and this is my point. As a nation we knew all along that at some point we were going to have to pay the piper. Yet for years we turned a blind eye to illegal immigration, and in fact encouraged such behaviour. Cheap labor was the business person’s best friend for decades, and these businesses helped elect officials that would put immigration matters on the back burner.
It would seem to me that we can’t have it both ways, it simply isn’t fair. To encourage folks to break the law for years, then when it’s time to pay for their care insist that they go home to a country that has had 18,000 murders in the last two years thanks to a nasty drug war. In the interest of fairness there are only two possible solutions in my mind. Either send every illegal immigrant home, tighten the border, and change the constitution that gives citizenship to those born here, or close the border through military force and give citizenship to those that are here, issuing work visas to those outside the country that qualify. Half measures will only draw the problem out for many more years, and the fact is that we can’t afford it.
Everyone knows that no one is going to be sent home, so let’s get on with it. We brought this problem on ourselves, we knew the day would come, now let’s address the situation quickly.
Michael Higgins
602.405.8769
www.seguromedicoaz.com