[weirdRN]

Hmm... This is a rare case. Usually Mexican hospitals demand payment in advance especially from those they deem likely to be able to afford health care. That was my experience.

However, Americans are not crossing into Mexico by the THOUSANDS everyday. Nor are Americans ringing up LARGE amounts of public assistance and Medicaid benes from the Mexican gov't.

Generally what happens is the ILLEGAL immigrant needs ER services that are costly. So the hospital writes it off as bad debt when the immigrant disappears and doesn't pay.

So who eventually pays for their healthcare? And, How expensive is that in comparison to the paltry sum that few vacationers might?

[pickledpepperRN]

I edited my post to avoid confusion. They were in Europe when my Mom got ambulance and hospital care.
She had thought it was indigestion and bought a "Bromo".
An ambulance came, did an EKG, and with sirens and lights rushed her to a cardiac hospital.
She was cared for for three days with IVs and a monitor. I was trying to get there when she died.

They never charged anything. There was no questioning regarding whether they could pay.

[Nitngale]

Originally Posted by spacenurse

I edited my post to avoid confusion. They were in Europe when my Mom got ambulance and hospital care.
She had thought it was indigestion and bought a "Bromo".
An ambulance came, did an EKG, and with sirens and lights rushed her to a cardiac hospital.
She was cared for for three days with IVs and a monitor. I was trying to get there when she died.

They never charged anything. There was no questioning regarding whether they could pay.

Sorry about your Mother, SpaceNurse. I don't know how much I would trust European healthcare since the botched job they did on Princess Di back in '97

[caroladybelle]

Originally Posted by Nitngale

Sorry about your Mother, SpaceNurse. I don't know how much I would trust European healthcare since the botched job they did on Princess Di back in '97

Given that current stats rate many European health (based on life span, child health, births, etc) much higher than that in the USA, we haven't got a lot of room to talk. Barring some of the war torn/former communist bloc countries, many have long enjoyed less expensive (based on per capita spending) and better health care.

[Nitngale]

Originally Posted by caroladybelle

Given that current stats rate many European health (based on life span, child health, births, etc) much higher than that in the USA, we haven't got a lot of room to talk. Barring some of the war torn/former communist bloc countries, many have long enjoyed less expensive (based on per capita spending) and better health care.

Maybe they're just bad at trauma I think it's the wine keepin' them alive

[pickledpepperRN]

I can't blame the healthcare provided Princess Diana or my Mom.
My Mom had insulen dependent diabetes for decades with all the complications. They were in Europe because she had gotten some eyesight back and wanted to see so much before she became blind. She had also been in CHF and would have eventually been on dialysis. I don't know exactly what her care was because my Dad was not a nurse. He said a nurses was almost always with her. They didn't speak English or Spanish so he couldn't communicate verbally.
She was put on a bedpan, curtain closed, and a few minutes later a large group ran in and worked on her. One told him she had died. Some were crying. My Mom was a well dressed, well groomed, slender, and stylish woman. Smiling and enthusiastic she didn't look as sick as we knew she was.
Wonderful spirit but her tissues were decomposing.

Right here in my city I refused to work registry at a hospital with a premier trauma surgeon and team.
BUT post op they called unstable patients on vents, drips, chest tubes, and other drains "telemetry". I was to be charge for 19 of these patients with an LVN the only licensed nurse.
The institute of Medicine has reported that understaffing causes deaths to "failure to rescue" the equivalent of two jumbo jets crashing every week.

We waste our time and resources transferring patients to "preferred providers", people are denied care, doctors don't tell them of tests and treatments their insurance won't pay for.
Healt insurance corporations own uildings where many smart people work. None of them care for any patients. I think they need to do useful work.

[CarVsTree]

Originally Posted by Nitngale

Sorry about your Mother, SpaceNurse. I don't know how much I would trust European healthcare since the botched job they did on Princess Di back in '97

I know this post is old, by I am very curious by your allegation. Wasn't Princess Di an unrestrained rear passenger s/p MVC @ a high rate of speed, with an ETOH+ driver? Was she not also found unresponsive at the scene? Wasn't she also ETOH+? I would think that all of these questions were MAJOR contributing factors.

What job did they botch?

[HM2Viking]

Originally Posted by brax881

Why do their children become citizens just because they are born here? This is not right, it puts a burden on our society.

Children born in the US are citizens as a matter of constitutional law. In other words the US constitution defines any child born on US soil (with 2 narrowly drawn exceptions for children of diplomats and military attache's) as an American citizen.

The assumption that children are a burden on society is just wrong. The Children are the basis of our future as a country. Denying education or health care to our own citizens is bad public policy. I frankly don't give a rats behind about the origins of any childs family. I just want to see our society invest in children in a way that sets them up to become fully functioning members of society. The developmental research clearly shows that children who grow up in poverty, without benefit of proper health, vision, dental or educational care are far more likely to grow up to become adults who are clients of the mental health or correctional systems.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally Posted by Nitngale

Sorry about your Mother, SpaceNurse. I don't know how much I would trust European healthcare since the botched job they did on Princess Di back in '97

My mom died several years ago. I thank you for your kind words because we who know of knew a wonderful mother are blessed. Along with my children, DH, and entire family we miss her every day.

BUT while she didn't expect to die on that trip she knew her health was poor. She had every diabetic complication except amputation. This was her last chance to travel. She had been diabetic since childhood.
I do not believe she would have lived had she been in a Magnet hospital here in the USA.

[Elvish]

I think a lot of people are attributing to illegal immigrants things that can be attributed to human beings in general....freeloading, a sense of entitlement, "what's in it for me?", and the list could go on. Get any group of 10 million people together -- regardless of sex, nationality, legal status, skin color, or religion -- and you are going to have people who want something for nothing and people who demand things they don't necessarily deserve. You are going to have far more people who aren't like that. We have plenty of home-grown folk who want to sit on their butt and collect disability while I work mine off to provide for me and mine. Don't blame it all on illegal immigration.

I have had the opportunity to speak with many immigrants, legal and otherwise. By and large they came here because there was nothing for them in their home countries. People who have been to those countries (not just the resort areas...) will know what I mean. My husband and I are in the midst of immigration paperwork for him as well. I know what it is like to try and navigate the mounds of paperwork and fees and nitpicking. Our system is not exactly user-friendly, even for a deserving user. People would come here legally if there were an easier way for them to do so. Trust me, no one would go through what most folks go through to get here if there were an easier way.

Only 1,000 unskilled worker visas were granted from INS (or ICE, whatever they are now) in 2005. Of those 1,000, exactly 2 were granted to Mexicans. Hmmm.

My husband and I have been married for almost 5 years. Our house, our bank accounts, our vehicle, everything is in both our names. We have a child. We pay taxes. We are no closer to him having permanent residency than we were the day we got married. Does that make me mad? You bet. If he can't get his papers straight, what hope is there for a Mexican (or Honduran, or Salvadoran, pick your country) peasant?

For some thought provoking reads, try the following books:
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
By the Lake of Sleeping Children and The Devil's Highway both by Luis Alberto Urrea
Coyotes by Ted Conover
With These Hands by Daniel Rothenberg

So there's my $.02