Monday, July 10, 2006

Just run a tab for them

Dallas hospital to bill Mexico for indigent care.

This is a good idea, even though the bill won’t get paid. I don’t think people realize how taxing the illegal immigration problem is on health care. It’s putting hospitals out of business and it’s shutting down emergency rooms. Keep in mind, this is making access to health care even worse for those law-abiding citizens who pay taxes.

But I want to take this a step further. The US currently sends $30 Million a year to Mexico as foreign aid. Why? Mexico’s leading industry is immigration. That’s no joke. Why are we giving them an additional $30 million on top of that?

I think we should take that money and give it to these hospitals who are on the verge of collapse all along the border. Then, make it optional for emergency rooms to provide health care to anyone who can’t prove US citizenship. Sound harsh? Of course it does, but we’ve been backed into a corner and it’s not fair for the US taxpayer to shoulder this burden. It’s not fair to me, or you, or anyone else who is an honest citizen paying taxes.

3 comments:

Dan Trabue said...

I think the judge is still out on whether illegal immigrants are costing us anything at all. By some estimates, they're contributing much more to the US economy than they're "taking."

In one estimate, immigrant tax payments total $20-30 billion MORE than the amount of government services they use.

In addition to all the consumer spending that immigrants do, immigrant households and immigrant businesses contribute $162 billion in tax revenues to federal, state, and local governments in the U.S.

It's a bit hard to determine in a partially underground economy what the actual impact is, but by most studies I've seen, we're not hurting from this exchange.

For what it's worth.

John Washburn said...

Well, that's all fine and good. I'm not denying in any way that illegal immigration is good for the economy...that's precisely why the GOP won't do anything about it.

BUT, it's absolutely crushing the health care industry along the border states. It's a huge problem with no solution in sight.

Dan Trabue said...

Fair enough. I'll not disagree with you at all that this is a problem. But it's a complex problem and not a one-dimensional "these people are destroying our country" kind of issue. That would be all I'm saying.