Pubdate: Sat, 08 Aug 2009
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2009 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/formnewsroom
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/area/Mexico

DRUG-WAR VICTIMS: FEDS SHOULD PAY NON-CITIZENS' BILLS

El Paso County is again asking for federal assistance when University 
Medical Center is forced, by law, to treat non-citizens victimized in 
the Juarez drug war.

We are owed the help. And this time, unlike the last, the request 
should not fall on deaf ears in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps our congressman, Silvestre Reyes, can help. With all the 
stimulus money pouring out of Washington, surely Reyes could have 
some directed to this purpose.

Bills, being picked up by El Pasoans, are accruing. The latest count 
shows 23 shooting victims costing $139,000, of which only $15,000 has 
been paid. Last year, the hospital treated 50 victims at a cost of 
around $1.4 million.

The law says the hospital must treat any person who shows up on its doorstep.

In most cases, the gunshot victims have held U.S. citizenship. The 
question is, why must El Paso taxpayers pay for what becomes indigent 
care when non-citizens are brought across an international bridge and 
taken to UMC?

County Commissioner Veronica Escobar says, "I anticipate it (drug 
war) will probably go on for a very long time. If this will be the 
status quo for our community, we need more federal aid. If we don't 
get that funding, the burden falls on the back of the local property taxpayer."

And there are no signs that this bloody war to rule the Juarez drug 
trade is abating. July had an all-time record number of murders in 
Juarez, 248. There were 25 killings in the first three days of this 
month. Last year, more than Advertisement 1,600 were murdered. So far 
this year the count surpasses 1,000.

UMC had been noted for huge indigent-care bills over the years, it 
being the county facility. In recent years, the hospital 
administration has made great strides in checking backgrounds of 
patients to determine if they had the means to pay their bill, or 
not. If a patient drives up in a Cadillac, as one example is given, 
it is usually determined he or she can pay -- and the hospital 
vigorously goes after its due, according to CEO Jim Valenti.

But getting payment out of non-citizens shot amid flurries of 
drug-war bullets is often-times impossible.

This is a drug war being fought on foreign soil with victims being 
treated on U.S. soil. Hospital bills for non-citizens should be 
picked up by the federal government, not the taxpayers in only one 
U.S. county -- ours.

Here's hoping this second try at federal reimbursement doesn't again 
fall on deaf ears.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom