Do illegal immigrants receive better healthcare than some U.S. citizens?

Question

Often people cite illegal immigrants as being the cause for the poor or middle class receiving substandard healthcare. They argue that illegal immigrants suck up valuable healthcare resources that would otherwise go to Americans. Perhaps this is the case, I don't know, but can someone explain to me to what degree do illegal immigrants get better healthcare than some American citizens?

Answer 1

unfortunately citizen aren't pampered enough

Answer 2

Do you have any idea how many hospitals in border states have closed after treating illegals for free? Once they close you have fewer resources available for citizens.

Not better, cheaper.

Answer 3

Having discussed this with hospital administrators, I can assure you that illegal aliens DO get better health care than American citizens, DO get special treatment, and DON'T pay a penny.  As a result, Americans receive less treatment, wait longer, and pay more than the actual cost of care.

Hospitals are required to provide care for those who cannot pay, but if it is an illegal alien, they know they will have to justify everything they do to consular officials, who will complain and coerce, and to "immigrant rights"  (i.e. illegal alien lobbying organizations) groups who demand this, that & the other.  And illegal aliens somehow manage to get demanding lawyers who threaten to sue over every last little thing until the illegal alien gets everything they want.

They cannot release a patient until they are sure that the patient will receive any necessary follow-up care.  All the illegal has to do is complain that such care is not available in his country (whether that is true or not), or complain they cannot afford medical supplies, etc.  One hospital gave an illegal alien over $1 Million in supplies -- hospital bed, sheets, clothing, prescription drugs, etc -- to a drunk driver who killed an entire family and lost a leg himself, just to get him out of the hospital where he stayed for over a year.  He insisted his family in Mexico could not care for him, but a brother (another illegal) in another state would care for him if they got him a bigger apartment, the bed, etc.  A year's care in the hospital was over a million, and it was cheaper to give him what he wanted just to get him out of there.

All they have to do is say they cannot pay -- end of story.  The hospital knows they cannot collect.  The person can always slip over the border and they can't get him.

With Americans and legal immigrants, they will put a lien on your house, garnishee wages, anything whatsoever to get you pay & keep paying until the bill is paid in full.

Of course, your hospital bill is composed of:  over 1/4 of the bill is "cost-shifting" (what the illegal aliens did not pay), another 1/4 is administrative costs (billing insurance companies and patients, etc.), and less than 1/2 is the actual cost of your care.

Incidentally, the Dems bandy about figures like "47 million Americans without insurance."  Actually over 30 million uninsured are illegal aliens, recent immigrants, and their children (some illegal & some of whom are actually "identity theft babies," not anchor babies).

Answer 4

They get the same care, they just say "no habla Ingles" and then they do not pay.

Answer 5

Very much so.  Congress is embarrassed by this, and have been moving to correct it.  But yes.

Answer 6

i am starting to think there is no good healthcare in America anymore. We need a universal health policy.

Answer 7

Because Hospitals are forced to follow federal and local regulations and CAN'T Turn them away even if they can't pay.

But insurance companies who eat that cost and pass it on to us are allowed to deny and prevent patient care.

Answer 8

The rule that does not allow middle class getting health care for free  or better has nothing to do with immigration or immigrants.

Even if all the illegal immigrants were gone, Americans with a higher income above the poverty level still no able to apply for benefits.

Answer 9

NO! some don't even get treatment until they are in the emergency room. You can blame that on the employers that refuse to offer them benefits. Doctor visits are expensive, how can anybody pay for treatment with no insurance and low wages?

"Illegal Latino immigrants do not cause a drag on the U.S. health care system as some critics have contended and in fact get less care than Latinos in the country legally, researchers said on Monday.

Such immigrants tend not to have a regular doctor or other health-care provider yet do not visit emergency rooms -- often a last resort in such cases -- with any more frequency than Latinos born in the United States, according to the report from the University of California's School of Public Health.

The researchers said illegal Mexican immigrants had 1.6 fewer visits to doctors over the course of a year than people born in the country to Mexican immigrants. Other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts, they said.

"Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants' overuse of the health care system," the researchers wrote."

Answer 10

not better, but free health care with no worries to pay back and no insurance premiums.