🚀 go-pugleaf

"Morton Davis" <antikerry@go.com> wrote in message 
news:7Hwuf.458174$084.202078@attbi_s22...
>
> "Scott en Aztl�n" <scottenaztlan@yahooNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> news:4s1lr1dd035havuam6vbgebkt02cgetq99@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:48:28 GMT, "Morton Davis" <antikerry@go.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >How do you get $500,000 in free medical care - including plastic surgery?
>> >Blow yourself up in a meth lab. A great many $100K medical expenses get
>> >written off as bad debt as a tax writeoff.
>>
>> That only goes so far. Emergency rooms are closing all over the
>> Southwest as a direct result.
>
> NOPE. Those bills are run up in long time intensive care burn units, which
> some are closing because Medicaid only covers 1/10th of a $500,000 burn
> recovery bill.
>
>

This article appears to contradict what you are saying. What do you have to 
support your position, other than your own opinion. I note, that a 
preponderance of Latinos here seem to be young males who are less prone to 
health problems than the average person.


Bill

------------------------------------------


BMJ  2005;331:310 (6 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7512.310-c

News extra

Immigrants do not push up US healthcare costs, study shows
New York Scott Gottlieb



Immigrants in the United States receive about half as much medical care as 
their native born counterparts, a study reports. Immigrants spend an average 
of $1139 ($640) a year in health care, whereas US born residents spend $2564.

The study found that Asian immigrants had healthcare expenses similar to those 
of US born people and that the biggest gap in spending was among Latino and 
black people (American Journal of Public Health 2005;95:1431-8).

The authors, who presented the study as the first nationwide analysis of 
immigrants� healthcare expenditure, based their research on data for 1998 from 
official health and income statistics kept by the Agency for Healthcare 
Research and Quality, a federal agency that generates health statistics and 
data for the US government. The data covered 21 241 people.

In total, immigrants accounted for $39.5bn in healthcare expenditure. After 
multivariate adjustment, the total healthcare expenditure of immigrants was 
shown to be 55% lower than that of US born people. Similarly, expenditure 
among uninsured and publicly insured immigrants was about half that of their 
US born counterparts.

Of the $39.5 billion, about $25bn was reimbursed by private health insurers, 
$12bn was reimbursed by government programmes, and the remaining just under 
$3bn was paid out of their pockets.

Latino immigrants on average spent $962 each on health care in 1998, compared 
with $1870 for native-born Latino Americans. The corresponding figures for 
black people were $1030 and $2524 and for white people $1747 and $3117.

In all, 25% of immigrants lacked health insurance in 1998, compared with 10% 
of native born residents.

Average healthcare expenditure was 74% lower on immigrant children than on US 
born children. However, spending on visits of immigrant children to emergency 
departments was more than three times higher than that on US born children. 
Immigrant children were also much more likely than US born children to be 
uninsured (29% versus 9% (P<0.0001)) or publicly insured (31% versus 20% 
(P<0.0001)).

The authors of the study theorised that immigrants receive a smaller 
proportion of health care than they pay for. The study also challenged the 
belief that immigrants are to blame for the rising cost of health care in the 
US, said Dr Sarita Mohanty of the University of Southern California, the lead 
author of the report.

"Our study lays to rest the myth that expensive care for immigrants is 
responsible for our nation�s high health costs," she said. "The truth is, 
immigrants get far less care than other Americans. Our data indicate that many 
immigrants are actually helping to subsidise care for the rest of us."

However, some health officials postulated that the lower spending on health 
care among immigrants may be a sign that they were having trouble accessing 
medical services. "You can explain this disparity as a lack of access due to 
language, financial, and insurance barriers," said Dr Ron Anderson, president 
and chief executive officer of Parkland Memorial Hospital, which serves a 
large immigrant population. "There�s nothing to celebrate in this study," he 
said.