Cardinal calls for health coverage for illegal immigrants

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is sure to drum up some controversy for saying it makes "no sense to deny" illegal immigrants healthcare.

In an op-ed, published Tuesday in the New York Times, the Cardinal says current health care bills falls short in three areas: the prohibition of federal money for abortions, the inclusion of provisions to ensure affordability, and the defense of immigrants’ rights to healthcare.

But he focuses his concerns on immigrants and what he describes as the “lack of adequate health care for immigrants who live in our midst but who do not yet have legal standing.”

Mahony points out that the Senate bill bars illegal immigrants from using even their own money to buy health insurance in the government-sponsored marketplace. The House bill allows illegal immigrants to purchase health insurance from the government-sponsored program, if they use their own money and receive no federal subsidy.

Both he says, have problems.

"When undocumented immigrants are intentionally excluded from health care coverage, they are forced to go to the only place where they will be accepted for care: trauma centers and emergency rooms — the most expensive health care delivery systems in the country. What a foolish waste of money, particularly in a time of economic stress for everyone. "

"...Using their own money, undocumented immigrants could receive basic health services through less expensive community clinics and doctors’ offices…And by paying into the system, immigrants would make health care less pricey for all by spreading the risks and costs among a larger pool of participants."

Mahony says that at least the House bill allows undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance from the proposed exchange. But he says the Senate bill takes the country in the "opposite direction and needs to be changed."

"How is the health of the entire country helped when the Senate will not even allow immigrants to use their own money to purchase their health insurance?"

Read the full op-ed here.

Can immigration enforcement protect workers?

A new report raises concerns of exploitation of Latino workers by egregious employers taking advantage of our broken immigration system.

The report was conducted by the immigrant rights advocacy group National Council of La Raza and cites data from academic studies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census and others. It finds, among other things, that the Latino occupation fatality rate was 21.1 percent higher than white workers and 17.9 percent higher than black workers in 2007.

You can read the NCLR study here.

We touched on some of these same findings in our series, Cruelest Cuts, and how the poultry industry ignored injured workers at its plants to help boost profits. Many of the victims were illegal immigrants too afraid to complain.

Anyone familiar with this blog knows that the NCLR is a staunch advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. So it should come as no surprise that the group maintains that many of these problems would not be as great if many of these workers could be legalized and therefore unfraid to join unions built to protect them, and feel safe to speak out against exploitation.

It’s an argument many advocates are making.

But there is also an argument that increased enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws would produce similar results.

In January 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Smithfield Pork plant in Tarheel. Months later ICE followed up with additional arrests of workers and many others fled.

According to a report by the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies, written by former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jerry Kammer, the raid turned out to be a key factor in the December 2008 vote to unionize the plant.

You can read the CIS study here.

Similar working conditions criticized by the NCLR study had been being reported for years at the Tarheel plant, the world’s largest pork plant. Yet, for 16 years, organizers were unsuccessful in starting a union.

Unions are not the savior, however. Some of the plants we reported on in Cruelest Cuts are also unionized. In plants with many illegal immigrant workers, union membership is down and therefore so is the union's influence and ability to demand better working conditions.

Advocates like NCLR, as well as many economists, say America needs more additional immigrant workers. But that argument is going to be difficult to make in today's economy with so many Americans out of work.

Photo: JOHN D. SIMMONS - jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com

Massachusetts cuts health care for legal immigrants

Here's a twist.

Gov. Deval Patrick stepped right over the controversy of offering healthcare to illegal immigrants and announced Massachusetts was cutting back state-subsidized health insurance for 31,000 legal immigrants.

The governor announced that legal immigrants would no longer receive coverage for dental, hospice or skilled nursing under the new plan. In a conference call with reporters, Patrick said his administration struggled to find a solution “that preserves the promise of health care reform” after the state legislature cut most of the $130 million it had previously allotted to immigrant health care, to help close a budget deficit, according to the New York Times.

Photo: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks to reporters at the Statehouse in Boston.

Jury sides with hospital that deported injured illegal immigrant

What obligations do hospitals have to treating severely injured illegal immigrants?

In a case that has drawn the attention of the advocacy and medical communities, a jury in Stuart, Fla., decided that Martin Memorial Medical Center did not act unreasonably when it chartered a plane and repatriated a severely brain-injured Guatemalan patient against the will of his guardian. The case is likely to become a point of reference for hospitals trying to determine their obligations toward uninsured illegal immigrants.

Check out the New York Times for their stories on the jury decision and a previous article raising questions about the case involving Luis Alberto Jiménez and Martin Memorial hospital, which provided Mr. Jiménez life-saving care and kept him as a ward for several years before undertaking his repatriation.

Photo: (AP Photo/Steven R. Martine, Stuart News)

Senator: No health insurance for illegal immigrants

Congress is drafting a major health overhaul that would cover nearly everyone, but not illegal immigrants.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, told reporters last week that covering undocumented workers is “too politically explosive."

The finance committee is drafting the sweeping legislation that would cover up to 96 percent of the population. The legislation is expects to be introduce by mid-June.

Baucus told the Associated Press that his bill would build on the current system in which employers, government and individuals share in paying health care costs. It's likely to include a requirement that individuals get insurance coverage, either through an employer, a government plan or on their own. He said the plan will include "incentives" - and perhaps requirements - for employers to help pay.

Even though illegal immigrants won't be able to get benefits under the legislation, they can still get health care at hospital emergency rooms and through federally funded community health centers.