Colorado - Illegal Immigrants no longer eligble for state health care

Nitngale · Sep 10, 2006

Where do I begin??? FIRST OF ALL HOOOORAY FOR COLORODO!!!
I believe it is all about culture, language and borders...no I am not a racist.just a law abiding citizen..I firmly believe America is great because we all immigrated here LEGALLY and built this fine country without welfare, without food stamps. Our forefathers came here and worked, and worked hard they did ....we became the best in the world....All of our ancestors did not come here to create a new Russia, a new China, a new Persia, a New France etc...They ASSIMILATED...ADOPTED the NEW WORLD'S CUSTOMS ..Those that came to the USA came here to be Americans....We are Americans by our CULTURE...LANGUAGE AND MAINTAINING the integrety of our BORDERS.
This was the MELTING POT.... The Melting pot no longer exists....I have spoken to many an illegal who proudly state they will take back America from the Gringo by sheer numbers of them coming here. As one writer stated what about their children that are born here and are instant citizens.
Let us rember...they were born here through an illegal act of the parents being in this country illegally. I think every illegal and there children should be deported immediately...the children gained citizenship illegally through their parents illegal acts....Check out the laws of MEXICO and see what happens to you if you are in that country illegally...At least Mexico respects their own borders and keeps illegals out .... those who get in....not a pretty sight!
I APPLAUD Colorado, I hope other states wake up and follow suit....believe me California will be the last to do so.

You don't need to qualify that you're not racist. This isn't about race. I don't want illegal Chinese, Dutch, East Indian etc... What does look racist is the new ruling that anyone here illegally EXCEPT Mexicans will no longer be ticketed but deported. Also why is it that if Cubans reach our shores they're given aslyum but not Haitians. You can't keep having a double standard. If you're illegal, you're gone. And these H1B visas need to stop as well. My neighbor originally came here from India by way of England. She has been here for 25 years----before H1B. Her family was wealthy in India (so much for huddled masses yearning to breath free) her kids are totally American to include those damn baggy pants. She told me that when they visit her parents in India people are always trying to pay her to adopt their kids and bring them over here. We really have no way of knowing whom is coming into this country. I predict in 5 years they will dissolve the border and refer to all of us as the American Union like they did with Europe.

flashpoint · Sep 10, 2006

History is way more complicated.
The Spanish and English, among others did not assimilate.
The term Gringo originated when Mexicans in Texas before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made fun of illegal United States immigrants singing "Green Grow the Lilacs". Some of these illegal immigrants to Mexico believed they owned their fellow homans.
Some of us have ancestors who did not come here in historic times. Others did not come willingly.

Are you sure about that?

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/gringo.htm

No matter what, I think that if you decide to go to a country and make it your home, you need to adapt to the rules, regulations, laws, customs, or whatever. You should learn the language (without forgetting your native tongue), you should pay taxes, you should drive on the right side of the road...sure you should keep your heritage and religion, but you cannot turn America into Mexico, Iraq, France, Canada, China, or where ever you happened to come from...you left that country for a reason. But we digress, don't we?

If you go to almost any country in the world and become ill, you are expected to pay for whatever health care you require. You aren't exepmt from paying for your medication or surgery anywhere else...why do we allow it here?

I don't think there will ever be an easy solution to this problem...it seems pretty heartless to turn our back on anyone in need, but often when we help one person, another person suffers. I often wonder where the money would go if it weren't spent on health care for illegals. I need to have my knee scoped...and probably replaced eventually...I keep putting it off due to the cost and missing work (I also hate pain and don't want to sit around my house doing nothing while I recover)...would I have fewer concerns about money if I were able to get help from the government? Maybe, but I will never know because I have insurance and I make too much money to get that help. Our citizens and our tax payers should come first.

pickledpepperRN · Sep 10, 2006

Slavery was illegal in Mexico when Americans owned slaves in Mexican Texas. Mexico wasn't able to enforce their own laws.

Columbus didn't discover America.

People were already here.

Truth is this is a very complicated problem.

My grandparents brought their two sons to Chicago from Canada in 1926. They got jobs and never thought about waiting lists or legalization papers. When my Dad and his brother joung the Air Force for WWII the family became citizens.

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · Sep 10, 2006

Slavery was illegal in Mexico when Americans owned slaves in Mexican Texas. Mexico wasn't able to enforce their own laws.
Columbus didn't discover America.
People were already here.
Truth is this is a very complicated problem.
.

To be completely honest, I don't care what the slavery laws were, or what part of Az was then Mexico, or any of that.

The truth is very simple:

1. We are drowning in a wave of illegal immigrants.

2. There is a legal process for obtaining citizenship, for some strange reason, illegals don't want to use it

3. The rules and laws of the here and now that they are breaking make them ILLEGAL.

4. Sympathy/empathy do nothing to solve the problem.

I'll work on solving the problem this next election-with my vote.

pickledpepperRN · Sep 10, 2006

To be completely honest, I don't care what the slavery laws were, or what part of Az was then Mexico, or any of that.
The truth is very simple:
1. We are drowning in a wave of illegal immigrants.
2. There is a legal process for obtaining citizenship, for some strange reason, illegals don't want to use it
3. The rules and laws of the here and now that they are breaking make them ILLEGAL.
4. Sympathy/empathy do nothing to solve the problem.
I'll work on solving the problem this next election-with my vote.

Good for you. Voting is important.

I will try to find candidates who don't take money from wealthy corporations that encourage illegal immigration by violating the law. Also many of us are working for clean elections here: http://www.cleanmoneyelections.org/

I think the labor laws need to be enforced. Utherwise corporations will "benefit" from denying basic health and safety regulations as well as minimum wage and overtime to "undocumented workers.

These workers are afraid to report the very worst abused that threaten all of us.

I have no problem with stopping people at the border or deporting those here illegally.

I do have a problem with the few employers who are caught just paying a fine and continuing their illegal unsafe exploitation.

One company here in Los Angeles sent recruiters to Thailand, paid families, and brought young women here telling them it was legal.

They were literally slaves sewing for 16 hours a day, locked into the workplace, not allowed to use a bathroom, and sexually molested.

BIG business has paid fines but done no jail time repeatedly.

Farm workers don't have access to sanitary facilities. Since they have no place else the very fields that feed us have human waste. Salmonella and e-coli are spread.

Those corporate farms, who donate BIG to political candidates are still in business.

I can't only blame the people who are working to support their family. I would work the fields for minimum wage as some of my family once did. For minimum wage and legal working conditions many Americans would.

http://www.laborresearch.org/story.php?id=89

http://www.progressivestates.org/content/114/03062006-stateside-dispatch-eye-on-immigration

http://www.progressivestates.org/blog/222/cracking-down-on-wage-law-violations

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june04/immigration_reform_02-04.html

rnwaller · Sep 12, 2006

Working in nursing for the last 16 years in six states I have had a variety of experiences but none so frustrating as the recent assignment in Houston, TX. Apparently, it has been commonplace for YEARS that Mexican residents drive (illegally)across the border to get dialysis. The Houston area health district spends an average of 100,000+ PER PATIENT/PER YEAR on illegals getting dialysis. By the way, since they are illegal, they come through the ER, to an ICU or telemetry admission for dialysis EACH WEEK!!!!!

I am not a mean person and do not have a problem as previously mentioned to do preventive programs such as vaccinations, but where does this stop?Is the US suppose to support health care for everyone who physically gets across our borders? And for those who support providing the care I only ask, where does the funding come from?

pickledpepperRN · Sep 12, 2006

Blame the super wealthy currupt government of Mexico.

Not people who want to live.

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Sep 12, 2006

Blame the super wealthy currupt government of Mexico.
Not people who want to live.

But, doesn't OUR outlet just insulate those wealthy elite?

Mexico has everybit of the resources to be on par with the United States standard of living-wise. More so considering how oil-rich they are.

Don't we just ENCOURAGE allowing the situation to exist as it is by being their steam valve?

Somebody argued that WE should encourage Mexico to be a better nation by its citizens. Enforcing our borders would do just that.

It's a basic human safety mechanism: fight or flight. Those that can't flight, fight.

~faith,

Timothy.

Ann RN · Sep 12, 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.

We do need to provide basic medical care for people - for American citizens. Become legal, then take advantage of our benefits, not before. Some cities (Hazleton PA and Riverside NJ) are enacting laws that fine businesses for hiring illegals and also fine owners of real estate for renting to illegals. I support this.

RebeccaJeanRN · Sep 12, 2006

Alot of the people posting here (myself included) realize that the U.S. citizens cannot support all the poor of another nation, even those of us who wish we could. When the hospitals pick up the tab, then by default WE pick up the tab...and when someone runs across the border to deliver an 'anchor baby', which allows them immediate Medicaid, again WE pick up the tab...when a family brings their retiring parents over from another country and signs them up for Social Security Income without ever working here a day in their lives, WE pick up the tab...Exactly how many 'we's' are there? Do we have enough 'we' to support, through our individual taxes, all the world's poor? Do YOU make enough? I know I don't. Eventually, even if our entire salaries were given over to taxes, the well would run dry and our standard of living will be gone (already, look at our healthcare costs and what we don't get covered in our healthcare plans, and the areas that are no longer supported by an emergency room at the local hospital).

So I ask the same question that I posted earlier: besides putting posts up here and venting, what are YOU doing to support a change? Are you campaigning? Drafting petitions? Supporting politicians who really on running on this platform? Sending in donations to support a group working to change our immigration (and illegal migration) policies (ie. Mothers Against Illegal Immigration, Coalition Against Illegal Immigration...whatever is determined by you to be the most legitimate avenue to promote change)? Venting here is fine, but nothing will change if we simply wait around for someone ELSE to change it. Anybody actually working toward stopping this rolling snowball? We spend enough without being given a choice, gotta' spend to support change...gotta invest either time or money or both. Words alone will NOT do it.

Nitngale · Sep 12, 2006

Slavery was illegal in Mexico when Americans owned slaves in Mexican Texas. Mexico wasn't able to enforce their own laws.
Columbus didn't discover America.
People were already here.
Truth is this is a very complicated problem.
My grandparents brought their two sons to Chicago from Canada in 1926. They got jobs and never thought about waiting lists or legalization papers. When my Dad and his brother joung the Air Force for WWII the family became citizens.

Mexico has never really been an autonomous country. Even their presidents today are educated in America (Yale or Harvard) and then sent back as little puppets. That is why Mexico could never enforce their own laws or fight to keep their lands. That is also why an Austrian was able to be put in a ruling position. And it was America that they turned to, to get rid of him, after the American Civil war. The Indians and Spanish, whom later became Mexicans, were not in the same position educationally or monetarially as the founding fathers of the US. My boss, who is Mexican, told me that there is no 'free' education in Mexico. If you can't afford it, your children don't go to school. I find this deplorable since Mexico not only has natural resources but 20 billion dollars being sent back every year by their illegal (and legal) relatives that are up here.

My grandparents too came from Canada in the 1930's and they had to wait before being granted entrance and get paperwork. I think the difference between Canada and Mexico is that most Canadians speak English, regardless of their race and they share a similar economic background, ie you don't get millions of Canadians down here working for minimum wage or less.

:wink2: PS No one has ever 'discovered' land. America was a discovery to Europeans---that's all that means.

msw2rn · Sep 12, 2006

Ok, This thread is driving me bonkers! And not about the actual topic. It's the misinformation regarding eligibility for federal benefits IE Social Security and Medicare. I can't speak to individual states' "welfare benefits" and medicaid as the requirements differ from state to state.

However, I used to work at Social Security and illegal aliens are NOT eligible for retirement or disability benefits. You are eligible for those programs based on the amount of taxes you pay by working, FICA and SSA. You earn credits based on a certain amount earned each year and you have to have so many earned credits to be eligible. It is an insurance. So essentially you have to pay the premiums to qualify. People confuse it with SSI which is entirely different. SSI is a welfare program for those age 65, blind, disabled and have NOT paid enough taxes but are extremely poor. They also can't get SSI if they are illegal. That is a myth. Trust me I had plenty of clients I wanted on these programs to cover their medications but they weren't eligible. And they were HIV + which is another complicated situation.

I am posting information from the SSA website. PLEASE go to source material and research eligibility requirements before assuming anything. Regarding individual cases, unless you are there and see the paperwork submitted and see their award letter, you don't know what someone else is getting and why. It drove me nuts when patients "compared benefits" with other patients and wondered why they weren't eligible for X. Sorry for the rant, just a pet peeve of mine.(smile):wink2:

Here is the information and you can go to http://www.ssa.gov for more.

The Social Security Administration is responsible for two major programs that provide benefits based on disability: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is based on prior work under Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Under SSI, payments are made on the basis of financial need.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is financed with Social Security taxes paid by workers, employers, and self-employed persons. To be eligible for a Social Security benefit, the worker must earn sufficient credits based on taxable work to be "insured" for Social Security purposes. Disability benefits are payable to blind or disabled workers, widow(er)s, or adults disabled since childhood, who are otherwise eligible. The amount of the monthly disability benefit is based on the Social Security earnings record of the insured worker.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a program financed through general revenues. SSI disability benefits are payable to adults or children who are disabled or blind, have limited income and resources, meet the living arrangement requirements, and are otherwise eligible. The monthly payment varies up to the maximum federal benefit rate, which may be supplemented by the State or decreased by countable income and resources. See http://www.socialsecurity.gov/notices/supplemental-security-income/text-benefits-ussi.htm for an explanation of SSI benefit payment rates.

How long does a person need to work to become eligible for retirement benefits? Answer

Everyone born in 1929 or later needs 40 Social Security credits to be eligible for retirement benefits. You can earn up to four credits per year, so you will need at least 10 years to become eligible for retirement benefits.

During your working years, earnings covered by social security are posted to your Social Security record, and you earn credits based on those earnings.

Each year the amount of earnings needed for a credit rises as average earnings levels rise. In 2005, you receive one credit for each $920 of earnings, up to the maximum of four credits per year. For 2006, you receive one credit for each $970 of earnings.

If you become disabled or die before age 62, the number of credits needed depends on your age at the time you die or become disabled. A minimum of 6 credits is required regardless of your age. You can file for retirement benefits online at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/applyforbenefits.

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Your retirement benefits

How do you qualify for retirement benefits?

When you work and pay Social Security taxes, you earn "credits" toward Social Security benefits.

The number of credits you need to get retirement benefits depends on when you were born. If you were born in 1929 or later, you need 40 credits (10 years of work).

If you stop working before you have enough credits to qualify for benefits, the credits will remain on your Social Security record. If you return to work later on, you can add more credits so that you qualify. No retirement benefits can be paid until you have the required number of credits.

How much will your retirement benefit be?

Your benefit payment is based on how much you earned during your working career. Higher lifetime earnings result in higher benefits. If there were some years when you did not work or had low earnings, your benefit amount may be lower than if you had worked steadily.

Your benefit payment also is affected by the age at which you decide to retire. If you retire at age 62 (the earliest possible retirement age for Social Security), your benefit will be lower than if you wait until later to retire. This is explained in more detail below.

NOTE: Each year, about three months before your birthday, you receive a Social Security Statement. It can be a valuable tool to help you plan a secure financial future. It provides you with a record of your earnings and gives estimates of what your Social Security benefits would be at different retirement ages. It also gives an estimate of the disability benefits you could receive if you become severely disabled before retirement, as well as estimates of the survivors benefits Social Security would provide your spouse and eligible family members when you die.

Early retirement

You can get Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62, but if you retire before your full retirement age, your benefits will be permanently reduced, based on your age. For example, if you retire at age 62, your benefit would be about 20 percent lower than what it would be if you waited until you reach full retirement age.

Full retirement age

The "full retirement age" is 65 for people who were born before 1938. But because of longer life expectancies, the Social Security law was changed to gradually increase the full retirement age until it reaches age 67. This change affects people born in 1938 and later. Check the following table to find your full retirement age.

When you apply for benefits, you will need the following information:

-your Social Security number;

-your birth certificate;

-your W-2 forms or self-employment tax return for last year;

-your military discharge papers if you had military service;

-your spouse's birth certificate and Social Security number if he or she is applying for benefits;

-children's birth certificates and Social Security numbers, if applying for children's benefits;

-proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful alien status if you (or a spouse or child is applying for benefits) were not born in the U.S.; and

-the name of your bank and your account number so your benefits can be directly deposited into your account.