On Apr 17, 2006, at 10:27 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Marta Russell wrote:
>
>
>> The moral ground I see is that so many who come here wind up
>> getting on government benefits.
>>
>
> Actually they don't. Immigrants are young, and use few government
> services. They pay taxes - including Social Security taxes, often
> into phony accounts that are very unlikely ever to draw benefits.
> Their use of Medicaid is surprisingly small - a few hundred million
> dollars a year, according to CBO estimates. On balance, they
> contribute more to the fisc than they take.
>
> Doug
Not in my neighborhood. They are middle age people. "On balance in contributing to the fisc" doesn't really mean anything to me. I see the consequences of an overburdened system all around here. The emergency rooms are overrun with non english speaking legals or illegals. The public health care system is shutting down in LA. Emergency rooms are closing. What emergency rooms remain open require 12 hour+ waits to see a doctor. My disabled friends suffer because there are so many people on MediCal that they have cut doctor pay down to next to nothing and they don't get decent service. Its a bottom of the barrel thing. I don't care what the national stats say. What is happening on the ground here is real.
Marta
-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20060417/fcc028d1/attachment.htm>