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In The Press -- Health

TB Top Infectious Killer
By Annie Freeda Cruez, The New Straits Times, Dateline Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 20, 2005
       There were 16,000 new cases of tuberculosis (TB) in Malaysia in 2004 and 1,200 people died of the disease. Authorities believe the rise in a disease they once thought was under control in due to the influx of illegal immigrant workers.
       Among the legal foreign workers, 3,000 are detected with the disease every year. But there are an estimated 400,000 to one million illegal immigrants in the country, and the disease in this group is difficult to track.

Immigrants Represent Most of Rise in Numbers of Uninsured
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, Dateline Washington, June 14, 2005
       Immigrants account for most of the increases in U.S. residents without health insurance, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
       While the study did not distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants, estimates are that at least a quarter of all immigrants are undocumented, most from Mexico.
       According to Paul Fronstin, director of health research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, immigrants are likely to be uninsured because "they are disproportionately employed by small businesses. They are uninsured because they have service and agricultural jobs that are less likely to come with benefits."
       U.S. hospitals often end up absorbing the costs of caring for uninsured immigrants, because they are required to provide emergency room care to all.
       See: The Impact of Immigration on Health Coverage in the United States, June 2005.

U.S. Is Linking Status of Aliens to Hospital Aid
By Robert Pear, The New York Times, Dateline Washington, August 10, 2004
       In a new program created under the 2003 Medicare law, the U.S. federal government is offering $1 billion to U.S. hospitals that provide emergency care for illegal immigrants. But to collect the money, the hospitals will be required to provide documentation about their patients' immigration status.
       U.S. federal health officials maintain that the information is necessary to make sure the money will be used as Congress intended; that is, for "emergency health services furnished to undocumented aliens."
       Some hospital officials are balking at the requirement. They say collecting the information will be difficult, administratively expensive, and may pose a public health problem if the requirements scare off illegals needing care. For example, the foreign-born population accounted for over 50 percent of the new tuberculosis cases reported in 2003, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
       A 1986 federal law requires hospitals to provide treatment to patients in their emergency rooms, regardless of the patients' ability to pay. But uninsured illegal immigrants have created significant financial burdens on hospitals, especially those located in border states like Texas, Arizona, California, and in states like New York, Illinois and Florida, where many illegal immigrants work and reside.

HIV Tests for Migrants Dropped in Racism Row
By Kirsty Walker, Daily Express, July 26, 2004
       Britain's National Health Service fears treating AIDS patients from Africa could bankrupt it.
       Walker writes: "In 2002, three-quarters of new 3,152 heterosexual AIDS victims in Britain contracted the disease in Africa. Just 275 cases originated in Britain.
       "Treating each new African victim costs 15,00 pounds (U.S. $27,624) a year, an annual NHS bill of 35 million pounds (U.S. $64,452,750.58)."
       Cabinet ministers considered a proposal that would force immigrants to take HIV tests before being granted visas, but dropped it due to fears such a policy would be considered racist and would only create demand for forged health certificates.

A Hospital on Border Going Over the Edge
By David Kelly, The Los Angeles Times, Dateline Bisbee, Arizona, June 20, 2004
       This feature story discusses the financial problems encountered by U.S. hospitals along the Mexico border that treat large numbers of illegal immigrants.
       U.S. law requires that hospitals treat anyone and everyone who shows up in their emergency rooms. Kelly writes: "In a study last year by the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition examined health care costs in 28 border counties in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. It found they had lost $200 million treating illegal immigrants that year."
       The 13-bed private community hospital in Copper Queen, Arizona, for example, has lost $800,000 in 2003 caring for migrants, and $500,000 the year before. The hospital lies in the "Naco corridor," where U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 154,000 illegal immigrants in 2004.
       Kelly writes: "Every day hundred of immigrants set off from Naco, Mexico, six miles from Bisbee, and head north through this ragged edge of Arizona. If they get hurt in the desert or while being smuggled in vans and trucks, they usually wind up at Copper Queen. The facility also take emergency transfers from Naco, which has no hospital."
       Stephen Lindstrom, medical director at Copper Queen, is quoted as saying: "The numbers are incredible. They are constantly bringing in dehydrated and injured Mexicans, but I don't think we've ever got a dollar."

Immigrant Care Cost Defies Tally
By Mark Bixler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 28, 2004
       A study recently completed by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) was unable to determine how much U.S. hospitals are spending to treat illegal immigrants.
       GAO surveyed hospitals in Georgia and nine other states that are home to about 78 percent of the illegal immigrants now living in the United States. Hospitals, however, do not ask patients about their immigration status and are required by federal law to treat patients who show up in their emergency rooms. The costs of these uninsured patients has nearly closed several U.S. hospitals near the Mexican border.
       GAO says that a low response rate to key questions in its hospital surveys made estimates unreliable regarding the financial burdens imposed by illegal immigrants.
       See: Undocumented Aliens: Questions Persist About Their Impact on Hospitals' Uncompensated Care Costs .GAO-04-472, May 21. Highlights only.

Report Ties Health Care Struggles to Immigration
By Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, February 26, 2004
       A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform says illegal immigrants are draining health care funds in the United States.
       According to the report, entitled The Sinking Lifeboat: Uncontrolled Immigration and the U.S. Health Care System, in some hospitals, as much as two-thirds of total operating costs are for uncompensated care for illegal aliens.

Hospitals Welcome Federal Money to Help with Immigrant Care
Associated Press Newswires, Dateline Brownsville, Texas, December 6, 2003
       In the Medicare bill President Bush is expected to sign December 8, border hospitals would get $1 billion to help cover the costs of caring for illegal immigrants.
       The U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, an American lobbying group, completed a study that found that U.S. border hospitals provided last year alone at least $200 million in uncompensated emergency care to illegal immigrants.

Hospital Workers Report Immigrants Who Owe
Associated Press Newswires, Dateline Phoenix, Arizona, November 29, 2003
       In an effort to recoup millions of dollars in uncompensated care, the University Medical Center in Tucson started reporting both legal and illegal immigrants with unpaid medical bills to immigration authorities.
       Upon discharge, patients are asked to set up a payment plan. Those who decline are referred to collections and given a letter saying they will be reported to immigration authorities.
       U.S. federal law requires medical care be given to anyone seeking help. Since July, UMC has $3.3 million in unpaid bills from immigrants.

Patients Without Borders
By Lisa Richardson, The Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2003
       The first of it's kind, Nextcare, a private company, is helping San Diego area hospitals deal with the rising costs of treating illegal immigrants.
       The two-year old firm, founded by an employee in the Scripps chain, has so far contracted with five U.S. hospitals to return about 50 uninsured illegal immigrant patients to Mexico.
       The patients must consent in writing to the transfers. They are then transferred south of the border; most often they go to Nextcare's Tijuana facility.
       The American hospitals pay Nextcare to arrange transportation and treatment south of the border. Nextcare's costs can be as low as $450 per day -- a bargain considering that the average stay in a California hospital can cost $1,737 per day.
       A study of hospitals near the border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas found that health care costs for illegal immigrants came to some $200 million last year.
       Another study found that the costs to Los Angeles County public hospitals and clinics ran about $340 million annually.

Hospitals Facing Cash Crisis from Bill for Illegal Migrants
By Jenny Hope, Daily Mail, August 16, 2003
       Increasing numbers of illegal immigrants are straining the financial resources of England's hospitals.
       At Swansea's Singleton Hospital, asylum seekers with HIV yearly cost nearly GBP 200,000 (U.S. $319,400) to treat. Managers at Newham General Hospital in East London estimate that annual losses resulting from free care to illegal immigrants run about GBP 772,000 (U.S. $1,232,884).
       Some asylum seekers arrive with advanced states of HIV and are difficult to treat. It is estimated that one in six immigrants is infected with tuberculosis and have of the TB cases in Great Britain occur in the foreign-born.

Singapore Asks Illegal Workers to Come Forward for SARS Checks, May Not Be Prosecuted
By Yeoh En-Lai, Associated Press Newswires, Dateline Singapore, May 26, 2003
       Singapore officials are asking illegal immigrants with SARS symptoms to come forward for treatment with the promise they would be sent home but perhaps not prosecuted.
       Wong Kan Seng, Singapore's minister for home affairs, is quoted as saying: "I am appealing to illegal foreign workers (with SARS symptoms) to see a doctor. We are prepared to consider their immigration or illegal employment offense compassionately."
       Last year, more than 10,000 illegal immigrants were arrested, but none yet have been found with SARS. Nonetheless, officials are worried that illegal foreigners might spread the virus because of their fear of being arrested if they seek treatment.
       So far, 206 people in Singapore have been infected by SARS; 31 have died.

85 Chinese Immigrants Held in Ukraine Amid SARS Fears
Agence France-Presse, May 26, 2003
       Ukraine officials have arrested and quarantined 85 illegal Chinese immigrants feared to be carrying SARS. So far, none have developed the deadly pneumonia-like condition that has killed some 700 people worldwide.
       Ukraine border officials say that more than 700 illegal immigrants have been held in quarantine. The illegal immigrants leave China by train, cross Siberia for Moscow, then travel to the Ukraine in hope of reaching a European Union country.

Croatia Accepts Chinese Illegals Feared To Have SARS
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Dateline Sagreb, April 30, 2003
       Croatian officials finally accepted a group of eight Chinese illegal immigrants who had been banned from entering the country from Slovenia because they were suspected of having Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Doctors later determined that none of them had the disease.
       Croatia plans to deport them to neighboring Bosnia-Herzogovia. The Chinese had flown to Sarajevo, via Moscow, after having left Beijing some 10 days previously.
       According to this report, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzogovina are on the "Balkan route" used by traffickers to smuggle people and drugs into the European Union.

Burden Grows for Southwest Hospitals
By Michael Janofsky, The New York Times, Dateline Phoenix, Arizona, April 11, 2003
       Officials at hospitals throughout the Southwest say they are treating more illegal immigrants every year.
       According to the American Hospital Association, the 24 southernmost counties from Texas to California accrued $832 million in unpaid medical care in 2000 -- one quarter of that figure attributable to illegal immigrants.
       U.S. federal law requires hospitals to treat emergency patients no matter where they came from or how.
       Molly Collins, a policy analyst for the American Hospital Association in Washington, is quoted as saying: "The problem is moving well beyond the border states. We don't have hard data, but it's certainly what we're hearing from hospitals and state associations. This is a much broader issue."

SARS -- Taiwan Targets Illegal Chinese Immigrants as Suspected Cases Rise to 14
AFX News Limited, Dateline Taipei, April 2, 2003
       In an effort to control the spread of the deadly illness known as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration is increasing patrols in the Taiwan Strait to stop illegal immigrants entering from mainland China.
       Each year, thousands of mainland Chinese are arrested attempting to enter Taiwan illegally. The fear is that illegal immigrants who successfully enter Taiwan will increase the spread of SARS.
       There are 14 suspected SARS cases in Taiwan; the disease has killed at least 78 people around the world.

Health Care for Illegal Aliens Draining Tax Funds Says Federation For American Immigration Reform
U.S. Newswire, Dateline Washington, March 4, 2003
       Senators Jeff Bingaman (Democrat of New Mexico) and John McCain (Republican of Arizona) have introduced the Federal Responsibility for Immigrant Health Act, S. 2449, which would require the federal government to reimburse state and local governments for providing health care services to undocumented immigrants.
       The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) told Congress March 4 that in 2000, some $190 million -- about 25 percent -- of uncompensated costs for hospitals located on the U.S. southwest border were for the treatment of illegal immigrants.
       Federal law requires U.S. hospitals to provide emergency treatment for anyone needing it. But the huge unpaid costs run up by illegal immigrants have led many hospitals to cut back on staffing and services and to increase rates; some hospitals have been forced to close.

Hospitals Feeling Strain from Illegal Immigrants
By Dana Canedy, The New York Times, August 25, 2002
       U.S. hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care to critically ill or injured patients regardless of their immigration status, are feeling the financial burden of illegal immigrants, according to this report.
       "By some estimates," Canedy writes, "hospitals are collectively writing off as much as $2 billion a year in unpaid medical bills to treat the illegal immigrants, who, unlike American citizens and permanent residents, are ineligible for Medicaid." (Medicaid is a government program that helps pay medical costs for low-income patients.)
       "According to a study released last month by the National Association of Counties, 86 percent of 150 counties nationwide reported an increase in uncompensated health care expenses in the last five years," Canedy writes. "Of those reporting an increase, 67 percent cited a growing number of immigrants as a factor in the rising costs for county hospitals and rescue services."

Illegals Add Risk to Sex Industry
By Nick Taylor, Perth Sunday Times, August 18, 2002
       Illegal immigrants working in Western Australia as prostitutes are increasing the risk for AIDS, according to this report.
       Some of the women smuggled into the country were prostitutes in their own countries -- Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Korea, and China -- and have contracted for up to $40,000 to organized crime rings. The smuggled-in prostitutes charge less than the Australian born and are more willing to engage in unprotected sex practices.

Scientists Say Bioterrorism Germs Could Spread More Widely If Uninsured Are Infected
The Associated Press, May 30, 2002
       Containing diseases caused by a bioterrorist attack could be hampered by people who might not seek medical treatment, say two public health experts.
       Writing in the journal Science, Dr. Matthew Wynia, of the American Medical Association, and Lawrence Gostin, a health law professor at Georgetown University, noted that there are 40 million people in the United States who lack health insurance, which might delay their care. Illegal aliens, who fear they and their families would be deported, might avoid seeking health care altogether. This would give disease more time to spread.