Illegal Immigration Myth of the Day

Posted on December 1st, 2007 in Crime, Healthcare, Immigration by Kyle
Illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are 50% less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to use hospital emergency rooms in California, according to a study published Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.The cost of providing healthcare and other government services to illegal immigrants looms large in the national debate over immigration.

In Los Angeles County, much of the focus of that debate has been on hospital emergency rooms. Ten have closed in the last five years, citing losses from treating the uninsured, and those that remain open are notorious for backlogs.

By federal law, hospitals must treat every emergency, regardless of a person’s insurance — or immigration — status. Illegal immigrants, who often work at jobs that don’t offer health insurance, are commonly seen as driving both the closures and the crowding.

But the study found that while illegal immigrants are indeed less likely to be insured, they are also less likely to visit a doctor, clinic or emergency room.

Story here. Overestimating the costs of illegal immigration is pretty easy to do. Even pro-immigration types can succumb to inaccurate biases.

Share This

Hillary Care V2.0

Posted on September 18th, 2007 in Healthcare by Wayne

Here’s the official story from her website.

From an interview, via the Washington Post:

The New York Democrat unveiled her health care plan Monday in Iowa, promising to bring coverage to all by building on the current employer-based system and using tax credits to make insurance more affordable. The centerpiece of her plan is a so-called “individual mandate,” requiring everyone to have health insurance the way most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance.

…

On her health care plan, Clinton said she planned to enforce the mandate to purchase health care through tax credits and other incentives.

…

“At this point, we don’t have anything punitive that we have proposed,” she said. But she said she could envision a day when “you have to show proof to your employer that you’re insured as a part of the job interview _ like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination.”

Ridiculous.

Share This