Colorado - Illegal Immigrants no longer eligble for state health care

HM2VikingRN, RN · Aug 23, 2006

Very poor public policy because while some family members may be "illegal" what will happen to their children who are born here? (They are citizens by definition)

If we cut off access to vaccination programs we are putting other children at risk

I am not advocating an open door for immigration but I do think that we need to provide basic medical care for people. The demand for illegal workers is driven by business. Make it very expensive for businesses to be caught hiring illegals and we will reduce the number of immigrants.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Aug 23, 2006

Very poor public policy because while some family members may be "illegal" what will happen to their children who are born here? (They are citizens by definition)
If we cut off access to vaccination programs we are putting other children at risk
I am not advocating an open door for immigration but I do think that we need to provide basic medical care for people. The demand for illegal workers is driven by business. Make it very expensive for businesses to be caught hiring illegals and we will reduce the number of immigrants.

They shouldn't be citizens by definition. That is a bad intepretation of a Constitutional Amendment meant for a different group altogether and that has a TWO FOLD test: born here AND subject to our laws.

On point, WE allow illegals to come here for a stated purpose: to do the work Americans will not do at that price. We are shamelessly taking advantage of their home situations.

How unethical is it to recruit people here so that we can treat them WORSE then we would treat any of our own (who are protected by minimum wage laws.)? We could close our borders almost immediately. We do not, and that is a political decision.

So, now that we've DECIDED, by lack of enforcement, to allow these people here so that we can treat them less then what we have already legally defined as basic human dignity, laws like this merely add insult to the considerable injury we already envisioned for them.

Simply put, illegal immigration is slavery by another name.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f112/not-so-modern-arguments-favor-slavery-171314.html

~faith,

Timothy.

lannisz · Aug 23, 2006

To me, it is not OK to allow healthcare to people who are not citizens of the United States unless we also give this benefit to all the hard working Americans who are uninsured and underinsured. Too many fall in the gap where they make too much for state aid, but not enough to afford their health insurance. That's shameful. It's kind of like letting people who crash a wedding sit down and eat the expensive catered dinner for free, while telling the legitimate, invited guests with an invitation, that they need to pay for their dinner.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Aug 23, 2006

To me, it is not OK to allow healthcare to people who are not citizens of the United States unless we also give this benefit to all the hard working Americans who are uninsured and underinsured. Too many fall in the gap where they make too much for state aid, but not enough to afford their health insurance. That's shameful. It's kind of like letting people who crash a wedding sit down and eat the expensive catered dinner for free, while telling the legitimate, invited guests with an invitation, that they need to pay for their dinner.

But if you leave the door to your wedding wide open, AND make no real attempt to distinguish between your wedding guests and the crashers, isn't this a problem of your OWN making? Indeed, if you leave the door open BECAUSE you were hoping for uninvited guests to fill out the 'party' (for whatever reason, maybe you were just hoping the wallflowers would get invited to dance), isn't that DOUBLY your fault that indeed, they come in to do just that?

~faith,

Timothy.

lannisz · Aug 23, 2006

But if you leave the door to your wedding wide open, AND make no real attempt to distinguish between your wedding guests and the crashers, isn't this a problem of your OWN making? Indeed, if you leave the door open BECAUSE you were hoping for uninvited guests to fill out the 'party' (for whatever reason, maybe you were just hoping the wallflowers would get invited to dance), isn't that DOUBLY your fault that indeed, they come in to do just that?
~faith,
Timothy.

Absolutely. And if we are going to have no limits on the number of guests then

we need to make the dinner free for everyone who comes AND hire a less expensive caterer! :chuckle

Noryn · Aug 23, 2006

Something is going to have to give. We simply cannot afford this. In an ideal world, yes healthcare would be free to all, all could get the medication and treatment they need, our vets wouldnt be homeless and our children wouldnt live in poverty.

We are fighting wars, sending foreign aid out, etc. Our resources are becoming so limited that unfortunately we are going to have to place priorities on how money is spent. Average Americans now are taxed to death, and with gas prices and the cost of living going up many people are struggling. The average American's debt is rising.

The catch 22 on this is, hospitals still have to treat them, so they are going to start losing a horrendous amount of money if they do not get compensated.

hope3456, ASN, RN · Aug 23, 2006

Very good point. I would suspect the reason that this is not happening to a greater extent is that some of the biggest corporations (agribusiness, oilfield companies) that profit from the illegals are good friends of President Bush......

I am not advocating an open door for immigration but I do think that we need to provide basic medical care for people. The demand for illegal workers is driven by business. Make it very expensive for businesses to be caught hiring illegals and we will reduce the number of immigrants.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Aug 23, 2006

Children born in the US are citizens of the US by law.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2006

No offense is intended, but I wholly agree with this new law. I am from California, a state that has been financially devastated by providing costly services such as healthcare, education, and social programs to illegal immigrants.

Six years ago I was a grocery store clerk in a city that had a large immigrant population. I would cash the payroll checks of these individuals who always provided a resident alien card as a form of identification. The groceries would be paid for with food stamps, the baby formula and cereals would be paid for with WIC vouchers, and a welfare check would be cashed at the end of the entire transaction. The aforementioned scenario would occur multiple times throughout my workshifts at the supermarket. My honest opinion is that illegal immigrants utilize more services than they reasonably pay for.

fergus51 · Aug 23, 2006

I don't see the practical benefit here. If hospitals are still going to have to treat them, then what have we saved?

Also, WIC benefits American born children of illegal immigrants, not the immigrants themselves. How would that change with this law?

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Aug 23, 2006

Children born in the US are citizens of the US by law.

Not Law, Health and Human Services regulations based upon a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.

Regulations are not Law. One is a set of rules, the other, actual legislation. The issue merely needs a clarification by Congress. And there is a push, of late, to do just that.

~faith,

Timothy.