Uninsured Poll

Last June Antonio Torres, a 19 year old uninsured citizen, was critically hurt in a car accident. Antonio Torres was comatose and connected to a ventilator, but because he was uninsured the hospital sent Antonio on a four-hour journey over the Mexican border to Mexicali. For days, Antonio's father searched for a hospital in the US that would treat his son. Finally, they found a hospital in California that would treat him. By the end of summer Antonia was recovering from his accident.

This case shows the ways in which American health care handles cases involving uninsured immigrants who are seriously injured or ill. Whether the patient will receive treatment or will be privately deported depends on what emergency room they initially visit. There is not much federal financing for these patients, and there is no governmental oversight of what happens to them. It is up to the individual hospitals to decide what will happen. Many hospitals see thimselves as "stranded at the crossroads of a failed immigration policy and a failed health care system."

The two hospitals that treated Antonia approached his case from different perspectives. The first hospital was focused on keeping down the cost of uncompinsated care, and send about 8 people a year over the border. The second hospital is more focused on the human being, and never sends a person over the border.

Hospitals have limited options when it comes to discharging a patient who needs continued care: keeping them indefinitely, with or without providing rehabilitation; finding them charity beds or sending them to a nursing home; or sending them home to relatives.

States closer to the Mexican border tend to act more hostile toward immigrants, and the state financing for their care tends to be low. Because of the system that the United States has now, states need to deicde between saving money or caring about the patient.

Christen