>On Apr 18, 2006, at 10:49 AM, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>>Marta,
>>
>>I think the point many of us are trying to make (some more
>>tactfully than others) are that the problems you point out about
>>SSI and health care have little or nothing to do with immigration.
>>Yes, they are serious problems, and yes, we should solve them.
>>However, even with the harshest immigration policies--boot 'em all
>>out, no social services--all the problems you identify will persist
>>for disabled people in our society. The immigrants aren't the
>>problem. It's strange to me that you're using them as a scapegoat.
>>
>>Miles
>>
>
>Miles,
>
>What do you think about this:
>A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated
>that in 2004 the annual uncompensated cost of medical care for
>illegal immigrants in California was $1.4 billion.
The most recent data for California health expenditures <http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/nhestatehealthaccountstables.pdf> was $126 billion in 2000. If that's increased in line with national expenditures, that was probably about $170 billion in 2004. So, $1.4 billion is 0.8% of the total. Big damn deal, eh?
>Noted medical lawyer Madeleine Cosman, J.D., Ph.D., wrote in her
>online journal on August 27, 2005, "Promoters of open borders and
>elevating the status of Illegal Aliens brilliantly use Americans'
>medical compassion against ourselves."
That's pretty funny. Are 46 million uninsured a result of all that compassion too?
> The medical literature reports that many undocumented immigrants
>sequester within their bodies infectious and fatal diseases that
>long ago were fought and eliminated by American medicine Now
>illegals may carry drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, malaria,
>polio, leprosy, plague, dengue fever and Chagas disease.
Oooh, walking toxin containers they are. Who needs suicide bombers when we have biological warfare delivery systems on legs?
Doug