Illegal immigrant dying of cancer falls through the cracks

[flashl]

She can't get aid without a Social Security number

At the age of 15 and five months pregnant, Katarina walked across the U.S. border and into the Arizona desert. Seven years later, she rests in a bed in Huntsville Hospital, her hair thinning from a first cycle of chemotherapy.

Her doctors say she could die soon for want of a valid Social Security number.

Without that number, said Dr. Richard Gualtieri, her oncologist at Huntsville Hospital: "You don't have any government services. You can't fit into an indigent program. You're stuck."

"These individuals are illegal aliens," he said, "but, at the same time, they are humans."

Huntsville Times

[ursi]

1. coming to America to die!

[NC_Nurse]

2. Bullshit. We treat Illegal immigrants all the time.

:shrug:

[flashl]

4. Then, you got to wonder what's going on in Alabama. nt

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lost-in-FL]

6. Nice to know there are compassionate progressives here. nt

[PsN2Wind]

5. And if I hadn't had the $25,000 dollars

for my Medicare co-pays last year, I, an American citizen that has paid into the government for 50 years, would be laying there dying for lack of care also.
My cost is so great because the Tucson hospital where I receive treatment acknowledges that extra costs are passed on to paying patients because the cost of indigent care, including those provided illegals, has to come from somewhere and the feds will only pay a portion..

[dropkickpa]

8. The Tuscon hospital you went to

participates in the abhorrent practice of balance billing. It's not because of illegals, that's just what they tell people to stick 'em with bills. Balance billing is when an institution accepts the negotiated cost of a service (negotiated by medicaid/medicare) then turns around and bills the patient the difference from what they would charge an uninsured patient. Many states forbid this practice for medicaid/medicare patients, but AZ is not one of them. I was involved in a lengthy battle with a hospital in Iowa about balance billing. The only thing that made them stop coming after me was when my medicaid provider at the time of service discovered some inconsistencies in their numbers and statements to me and sic'ed their fraud team on them. All of a sudden, the issue was droppped and immediately and mysteriously removed from my credit report. Balance billing happens in states with very low illegal immigrant populations, too. It's just that, in Arizona, it's easy to pass the blame onto illegal immigrants.

[newfie11]

10. you bet!

I have seen people sent home when they should have been admitted because they didn't have health insurance. Some doctors refuse to treat uninsured patients. When an appointment is being made the receptionist requests insurance info and if there is none then full payment is expected at the time of appointment.
I remember x-raying an elderly woman who was having trouble breathing. She came into ER and was sent home even though she needed a chest tube. One lung was completely filled with fluid. She came in at 6 pm and no surgeon would come in for Medicaid!She had to come back at 8 am the next day.This was a white woman and in Illinois.

[Lost-in-FL]

7. It is always easier to blame the "illegals" than fix the broken system.

Everyone would just focus on those damn illegal Mexicans while Congressional Republicans, Medical companies et al laugh in your face.

[Quantess]

9. Maybe Guatemala should help her. (no text)

[flashl]

11. Since you read the article to learn she was from Guatemala, then you also read this ...

If found and deported, Vasquez said, Katarina would not receive any care in her home village, San Juan Ixocy, in the mountains near Huehuetenango. And, he said, she would be unable to afford care in the national hospitals in Guatemala City.

[Quantess]

12. It's pretty sad.

Our health care system is so broken, US citizens can't get needed health care sometimes. Obviously, Guatemala isn't any more helpful to their citizens. I'm sure Guatemala wishes the USA would take care of this poor woman so they don't have to. In my opinion, Guatemala should be especially ashamed. Of course this also makes the USA look bad, but, what does anyone expect? We have a horrible lack of health care for poor and uninsured people, citizen or not.

[joeglow3]

13. She is illegal, 22 and has FOUR kids????

Wow. I am torn on this. On the one hand, she is a human and you want to help. On the other, there are billions who need the help and sadly, we (or the world, for that matter) don't have the means to handle them all.

Regardless of that, this sounds like one of those rare cases of someone coming here to milk the system and not actually work to better their life. Either that, or someone who needs to learn how to use a condom.

[eilen]

14. This is not a shocker

I worked at a hospital in TN. A gentleman I took care of had been getting treatment for head and neck cancer then they took his TennCare away so he couldn't continue. Luckily he managed to get a timely appeal because his tumor started growing again. If he couldn't get the Tenncare back, he would have just died a horrible death.

One lady was refused access to a pheresis machine because she didn't have insurance. They had to bring it to the ethics committee for a lifesaving intervention of her newly diagnosed acute leukemia.

Those are American citizens who have paid taxes and supported their country.

At the NY state hospital I worked at, they would have treated her. We've treated all kinds of foreign nationals with no insurance.

I'm a little confused, why was she being treated with chemotherapy while pregnant? That is bizarre.