United States Socializing Medicine for Illegal Aliens

In what might be the most ill-conceived government program of all time, federal dollars will be used to pay the health care costs of illegal immigrants.

Liberal lunacy in regards to socializing medicine in the United States is difficult to comprehend, but socializing medicine only for foreigners who have crossed our borders illegally is completely assinine. We can't take care of our own homeless, handicapped, and unemployed....yet we're giving Mexicans free health care? Unemployed US citizens are passed on to collection agencies and their credit ratings are destroyed when they face a medical crisis, but Guatemalans get a free ride?

I can hear the conversation in Chihuahua, Mexico right now:
Juan: "I've got liver problems, and my kidneys are failing".
Jose: "What will you do".
Juan: "I'm saving up to visit a specialist in Mexico City".
Jose: "Forget that - sneak into the United States, and you'll get FREE health care!"
Juan: "What? How could I get free health care in another country?"
Jose: "I don't know - but the US Government set aside over 1 billion dollars just to pay for the medical expenses of people who sneak into their country."
Juan: "Nice knowing you Jose, I'm headed to San Antonio!"

To be clear, I do not advocate turning away emergency patients who happen to be illegal immigrants. But this crisis is threatening to bankrupt many of our nation's hospitals. The state of California alone provides $500 million per year in health care for illegal immigrants! Federal funding is not the answer. We must collect for services, and/or send illegals home for health care. Here are three options which make far more sense:

• Provide full services, then bill the home countries of those receiving medical care in the way of tariffs. Adjust the tariff each year based on total medical care expenses provided to citizens of that country. This option is compassionate, fiscally responsible, and would put an end to the travel brochures put together by foreign governments which teach citizens how to sneak into the U.S.

• Report undocumented workers to the INS upon hospital admission, and send the bill home with patients upon discharge. It is well known that the INS can handle only so many cases per year, so make it clear that undocumented workers who do not make minimum payments towards their medical bills go to the top of the list. Illegal aliens send billions of dollars back to Mexico and Central America annually, it is time they used their earnings on services consumed in the United States.

• Provide only the minimum level of services, and then use the $1 billion to transport the patients to the nearest hospital in their country of origin. Granted, this is the least compassionate of these alternatives, but free basic care and a free ticket home is far more than a US citizen could expect to receive (either at home or abroad).