Until the recent election of Republican Scott Brown as the junior Senator from Massachusetts, it looked as if Congress would pass the government takeover of our healthcare system, not-so affectionately known as Obamacare. For several months, Congress debated and ignored our very audible objections, while our insurance premiums and co-pays continued to rise. However, the number one culprit behind out-of-control health care costs goes unmentioned.

Along with a host of other crimes, illegal aliens are stealing health care for which the rest of us must pay.

The enormous bills which illegal aliens leave unpaid at American hospitals, leave those hospitals with two choices: They can either distribute those costs among their paying customers, or operate annually at a loss and eventually close their doors.

In 2003, the American Southwest saw 77 hospitals enter bankruptcy due to unpaid medical bills incurred by illegal aliens. Over the last several years, a staggering 84 hospitals in California alone have been forced out of business due to the growing crisis. Hospitals which manage to remain open, pass the unpaid costs onto the rest of us, which translates into more out-of-pocket expenses and higher insurance premiums for Americans.

Everyday, pregnant Mexican and Central American women on the verge of giving birth, make their way across the U.S. border to have their baby in an American hospital. These children become infamous "Anchor Babies" so prized by their criminal parents. Once the child is born on American soil, he or she instantly attains U.S. citizenship. Not only are the parents almost always allowed to stay, but since they have no income, the baby is eligible for welfare, WIC, Food Stamps, etc.--all at the expense of the great American taxpayer.

At one of North Carolina's Goshen Medical Centers, nursing assistant Jessica Roberts told USAToday in 2008, about an illegal alien who arrived more than eight months pregnant with her eighth child!

There are 350,000 of these so-called Anchor Babies born in the U.S. every year. It is estimated that they consume $118 billion annually in government services.

A 2007 March of Dimes survey placed the average cost of an uncomplicated, vaginal birth in a U.S. hospital at $8,800, with the average cost of a cesarean birth at $11,000.

Of course, these hospitals have no choice but to treat these women along with their newborn babies. However, the bills racked-up in the process always go unpaid.

According to a 2000 report by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, counties along the Mexican border lost over $800 million in health care services, at least 25% of that could be attributed to unpaid bills incurred by illegal aliens.

The American border states currently shoulder the brunt of the burden, for instance the Texas state comptroller estimates illegal aliens cost hospitals $1.3 billion in 2006 alone.

In California, a 2004 study conducted by FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform) placed the now bankrupt state's annual cost for treating illegal aliens at $1.4 billion.

But with the spread of illegal immigration now throughout the U.S., the same such studies in 2005 found that health care costs for illegal aliens in Colorado and Minnesota were $31 million and $17 million, respectively.

In recent years, North Carolina has seen an explosion in the state's illegal alien population, as well as sky-rocketing medical costs. According to a University of North Carolina study, one in four new residents to the state from 1990 to 2004 was an illegal alien. The Pew Hispanic Center claims there are now more than 300,000 illegal aliens living in North Carolina.

In 2008, Jeff Spade, vice president of the North Carolina Hospital Association told USAToday: "It's exploded the amount for hospitals, the burden of the uninsured immigrant is huge. It's exploded the amount of work that they have to do."

A March 2007 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that during the period 2001-2004, emergency Medicaid costs for illegal aliens rose by 28% in North Carolina.

Duplin General Hospital in Kanansville, NC, now faces a rather bleak financial future due to the large influx of illegal aliens, and their unpaid medical bills. CEO Harvey Case recently addressed the hospital's lack of profits, when he said: "We're living off reserves."

U.S. hospitals often seek help for the unpaid bills as well as with transportation back to Mexico from the Mexican Consulate offices. However, the Mexican government rarely even arranges flights for their severely injured citizens to return home.

The illegal alien patient usually ends up staying in the hospital for weeks or months, with the hospital usually paying for a flight home, along with the enormous unpaid bill.

A 2008 New York Times article told the incredible story of a1999 Florida car crash which left Guatemalan national Luis Alberto Jimenez's with severe and permanent physical and mental injuries. After spending more than $1 million on Jimenez's treatment, and failed attempts to secure assistance from the government of Guatemala, the Florida hospital eventually paid to fly Jimenez back to his own country.

The incredible part of the story.Jimenez is now suing the Florida hospital, which he now says "falsely imprisoned" him and deported him against his will, to avoid anymore unpaid medical bills.

We have been told by our government that the number of illegal aliens currently inside the U.S. is about 12 million. However, we have been given this same figure for the last seven years, and even then that figure was considered very low by those who have studied the problem of illegal immigration.

With close to one million crossing our border with Mexico illegally every year, the number of course, is much higher than 12 million. Just like American citizens, illegal aliens get sick, they get injured, and they give birth. However, unlike most Americans, illegal aliens do not pay any portion of their medical bills. Many use fake or stolen Social Security numbers, as well as aliases and move back and forth across our unprotected without detection.

Of course, we know that nothing in life is free, someone has to pay for it. Hospitals are not the federal government, therefore they cannot simply print money out of thin air to cover their expenses. So, all of the bills left unpaid by this country's illegal aliens are being paid by all of us who pay for our own healthcare, as well as through our federal and state income taxes.

Though President Obama will never mention this hard truth, if we simply ordered all illegal aliens out of the country and deported the ones who refused the order, as well as placed our military along the border.Healthcare costs would stop rising and could even drop.

We do not need a government takeover of the best healthcare system in the world, nor do we need an amnesty bill for illegal aliens (a.k.a Comprehensive Immigration Reform), we only need to defend our border and expel those here illegally.

So what you're saying is that if the government did it's #1 job, protect the borders and citizens of this country, then many of the other problems would go away?

That's crazy talk!

But these people contribute so much to our country.....

Besides health care, you also have to include the cost of the extra police needed when people who shouldn't be here commit crimes, the costs of putting them through the legal system and then the cost of putting them in jail. Out here there is a huge Latino underground economy - those folks don't pay sales or income taxes but think nothing of sucking up social services. Oh, and then there's the cost of putting them through school and the frequent need for bi-lingual teachers. Finally, many of the jobs the illegals often get are in construction, you know, the jobs that are often unionized. Wonder why the AFL/CIO ain't complaining?

What can we do? Hospitals are forced to take in these illegals. We need something done, who is going to do anything?

(02-03-2010 04:34 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  According to a 2000 report by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, counties along the Mexican border lost over $800 million in health care services, at least 25% of that could be attributed to unpaid bills incurred by illegal aliens.

So, among those hospitals most affected by this problem, only a fraction of their losses are due to illegal aliens? Then it stands to reason that this is at best a small part of the healthcare "crisis".