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CA Dr. fired for treating an illegal alien
Rockatansky
Member Posts: 11,175
Comments
WAY TO GO DOC!!!
I think your subject title is missing a word.
he is standing up to his sowrn medical creed
Doctors are supposed to help patients. What next? Not treating gays? How about not treating a hunter wounded in a hunting accident?
this case here is about NON-EMERGENCY medical care at tax payer expense for poor AMERICAN CITIZENS.
Are you going to say the same thing when that dr. doesnt treat an american because of no insurance?.
And what about the american with no insurance?..They get the same FREE medical care--emergency and non emergency-- free of charge but at the tax payers expense..
Are you going to say the same thing when that dr. doesnt treat an american because of no insurance?.
you are confusing the issue here. the issue here is this doctor works for a program designed for AMERICAN CITIZENS who are poor.
americans who have no health insurance can and do receive health care from government funded hospitals but not private doctors and private hospitals.
this doctor made a choice to deny an illegal alien NON-EMERGENCY treatment because he worked for a government program that is tax payer funded for the specific purpose of providing health care to POOR AMERICAN CITIZENS.
while I don't have love for illegals, this greatly concerns me as a future medical physicist.
Doctors are supposed to help patients. What next? Not treating gays? How about not treating a hunter wounded in a hunting accident?
Gotta agree- Doctors = Neutral Thats why they took the oath.
also, if you are so concerned about illegals getting FREE health care you are more than welcome to contact any hospital in los angeles and foot the bill for any of their patients
also, if you are so concerned about illegals getting FREE health care you are more than welcome to contact any hospital in los angeles and foot the bill for any of their patients
How bout americans FREE health care?...how bout footing the bill for that?.....ohhhhhhhh I forgot, we all ready do foot it, and also foot it for some who can pay but wont...
And before anyone accuses me of being in support of illegals, I will clarify...>I did NOT say I was in favor of illegals or not in favor of them,..>I did say to look at all the americans who cant pay, or wont pay....Everything is not always as black and white as one would think...
Our country has officially gone crazy.
while I don't have love for illegals, this greatly concerns me as a future medical physicist.
Doctors are supposed to help patients. What next? Not treating gays? How about not treating a hunter wounded in a hunting accident?
What is a medical physicist?
And what about the american with no insurance?..They get the same FREE medical care--emergency and non emergency-- free of charge but at the tax payers expense..
Are you going to say the same thing when that dr. doesnt treat an american because of no insurance?.
There is a big difference between Americans getting "free" medical care, and illegals getting it. Americans are held financially responsible, as they have soc. security numbers, and they own homes and they have a credit score.
The illegal probably doesn't even have an id card, and if he does, it is probably counterfeit. Hospitals know better than to try to collect from them.
Hospitals hold the citizen responsible for the bill. Around fifty percent of bankruptcies are caused by large medical bills that the U.S. citizen could not afford to pay.
Now, in the case of this particular clinic, perhaps they do treat citizens and don't charge. If so God bless them.
By the way, I have insurance, and even so am now being saddled with over 10K in medical bills from my broken leg, there is no way I can pay it, I can't even work for two more months. So, bankruptcy is a possibility for me, although I am going to try to avoid it.
By the way, I have insurance, and even so am now being saddled with over 10K in medical bills from my broken leg, there is no way I can pay it, I can't even work for two more months. So, bankruptcy is a possibility for me, although I am going to try to avoid it.
But...but...but...Allen, Black Roses says Americans get FREE health care.
quote:Originally posted by BlackRoses
How bout americans FREE health care?...how bout footing the bill for that?.....ohhhhhhhh I forgot, we all ready do foot it, and also foot it for some who can pay but wont...
Dr. Gene Rogers knew what they had come to do, and why they were doing it. As the medical director for Sacramento County's Indigent Services program for the better part of the past decade, Dr. Rogers has waged a long fight against the central California county's practice of providing non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants - a policy he says violates federal law and results in the poorest American citizens being denied the care they deserve.
That fight cost Dr. Rogers his job. In a two-sentence memo to Dr. Rogers, the county's Health and Human Services director, Lynn Frank, informed him that he was fired, but thanked him for his services. No reason for his termination was offered, but then he didn't really expect one. "Sacramento County knowingly violated state and federal laws, misappropriated taxpayer revenues and diverted funds designated for indigent citizens to pay for services delivered to illegal aliens," Dr. Rogers said. "And they did so even as they cut the budget."
Fired earlier this month, Dr. Rogers is the latest casualty on a frontline in the struggle over illegal immigration that's often overshadowed: the battle that has simmered throughout government agencies. Many government employees remain silent in the face of what's happening - fearful for their jobs and perhaps doubtful that they would make a difference. But Dr. Rogers, a Vietnam veteran, felt compelled to become a conscientious objector to the status quo.
The local cost of the medical treatment provided to illegal immigrants is small when contrasted to the billions of dollars the state and federal governments spend every year on the "undocumented," but the numbers have grown dramatically. According to county health officials, the hundreds of illegal immigrants who were being treated through the indigent program in the mid-1990s have now grown to thousands of people, with the annual cost to taxpayers swelling into the millions of dollars.
Ironically, when Dr. Rogers, 67, took the position of medical director for the indigent services program back in 1999, he arrived in the Central Valley with hardly a clue (let alone an opinion) about illegal immigration and its impact on social services. He had one goal: to provide the best care possible for those who need it most.
As the years went by, however, that egalitarian perspective began to be tinged with cynicism as he watchedpoor citizens get squeezed out of the system even as illegal immigrants gleefully manipulated it, all while bureaucrats facilitated the rampant violations of the very laws they were entrusted to enforce.
"I've seen cases and case histories of patients who essentially have come up from Mexico for the express purpose of being treated here, and then leaving to return home," Dr. Rogers said. "I've watched illegal immigrants brazenly demand free, non-emergency health care that was meant for our poorest citizens. I've heard them and their families complain. They feel entitled to it." Dr. Rogers filed a lawsuit in 2003 after county officials "stonewalled" him when he questioned why they were cutting budgets while still providing non-emergency medical treatment to people who have no legal right to be in the country.
The lawsuit is currently under appeal in federal court, but its impact was felt in the state capital, causing a nervous Latino Legislative Caucus in California last year to push through a bill by state Sen. Deborah Ortiz that explicitly allows counties to "opt" to provide non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants. Sacramento County also responded, Dr. Rogers said, by seeking to alienate him from his prior relationships with county medical staff and by methodically preparing to fire him - with a little humiliation thrown in along the way. On one occasion, Dr. Rogers said, he was forced to sit through a staff meeting in which his supervisors asked case-management nurses one by one if they had any issues or problems with him. None said they did, but it was a humiliating experience.
"I am concerned that you continue to focus on patients' immigration status," Program Manager Nancy Gilberti said in a negative work review, "which is outside your and [the] program's purview." Mrs. Gilberti's remarks reflect a prevailing culture that has emerged in government: a culture that will not tolerate anyone who dares to draw a distinction between American citizens and illegal immigrants. It is a culture that now pervades police departments, public schools and universities, social services and health care.
But when someone like Dr. Rogers speaks up to question the impact on citizens of such allocation of funds for health services like those in Sacramento, the response is clear: Sit down and shut up - or else.
But considering that a young Dr. Rogers started his medical career trying to save the lives of horrifically wounded American soldiers in the jungles of Vietnam, Sacramento County's apparatchiks picked the wrong target this time. For Gene Rogers himself, his crusade is deeply rooted in those grim battlefields he found himself on more than 30 years ago. He watched young men fight and die, men who sacrificed all for the very distinction that citizenship brings to Americans.
It's a distinction that Sacramento County and so many others may choose to ignore, but for Dr. Rogers, that loyalty is a sacred trust he is determined to keep.
Mark Cromer is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization.
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
while I don't have love for illegals, this greatly concerns me as a future medical physicist.
Doctors are supposed to help patients. What next? Not treating gays? How about not treating a hunter wounded in a hunting accident?
What is a medical physicist?
physicists who work alongside doctors in matters involving radiation, so either imaging or radiation oncology (zapping cancers w/ radiation). medical physicists work more with the equipment than with the patient (which is more the doctor's domain), there is also a great field of R&D jobs in the area, mainly for medical physicists with doctorates (Ph. D. not M.D)
maybe the crums who do nothing but sit home waiting for the gov check do but not the mid-lower class working stiffs!
case in point is my wife, she was laid off, never had benefits, i had just started a new job after extended medical problems, no insurance.
constantly sick, they thought it was gall bladder. was paying all the tests etc out of pocket and they were REFUSEING needed tests because we didnt have insurance!
went and applied for the medical card all the illegals and general cruds who dont want to work have, was ALL we wanted, a way to get her checked out...we made $1.30 per month too much!
but if she got bad enough to be admitted to the hospital, needed surgery etc, THEN we MAY be able to get help!
Yes, there are those that have absolutely nothing and living on assistance that get medical treatment paid for, but they are not the ones I speak of here, and their time on this assistance is limited. If you truly take the time to research all of this you will find it to be true. If you don't, you are simply spouting off about something of which you have no true knowledge.
Now, if you are an illegal you will not be charged the bill, won't be sought out for payment, (where are they going to find you?), and our tax dollars will pay for it. Go to any ER and spend some time watching all the none emergencies that get treated each night by those that can and do play the system.
Argue this if you wish, but it is how it works and denial will not take it away. swamp_thing
quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
I think your subject title is missing a word.
he is standing up to his sowrn medical creed
I am against illegal immigration as well as the next fellow, but the gubment has turned its head for so long now and the people are here, Now were does the responsibility lie? Now that they are sending people back and letting the children born here stay, who is going to take the responsibility of raising and paying medical for these children?
PICKENUP: There are many americans that get FREE medical care, My neighbor was one of those people, on welfare to boot. My Stepson was another one at the age of 30 ,part time jobs and no insurance. something wrong, just go to the emergency room not a problem. When he was in prison, we had his three daughters, they were placed on medicaid (FREE) medical care as I could not get them on my Tri-
Care insurance , and they were placed on Social Security benifits because we were never declared the legal custodians of them (thats another story) Point being , Yes! Many americans get FREE medical attention.
I didnt make this problem, you didnt make it either. The gubment let it happen and continues to let it happen.
I already stated the tax payer was footing the bill...Its FREE for those who arent paying and there are a large number of them....FREE to the person who is in the hospital getting the care, gets the bills and refuses to even try to pay, but states "Who cares, I just declare bankruptcy, dont pay now, dont pay then"...and yes my one neighbor said it....Its FREE to them, NOT to others..
quote:BlackRoses Posted - 08/30/2007 : 05:49:19 AM
quote:
you should actually READ the oath doctors take.
also, if you are so concerned about illegals getting FREE health care you are more than welcome to contact any hospital in los angeles and foot the bill for any of their patients
How bout americans FREE health care?...how bout footing the bill for that?.....ohhhhhhhh I forgot, we all ready do foot it, and also foot it for some who can pay but wont...
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
By the way, I have insurance, and even so am now being saddled with over 10K in medical bills from my broken leg, there is no way I can pay it, I can't even work for two more months. So, bankruptcy is a possibility for me, although I am going to try to avoid it.
But...but...but...Allen, Black Roses says Americans get FREE health care.
quote:Originally posted by BlackRoses
How bout americans FREE health care?...how bout footing the bill for that?.....ohhhhhhhh I forgot, we all ready do foot it, and also foot it for some who can pay but wont...
Maybe Black Roses can tell us why a National Health Care Plan for all Americans is a 24/7 topic of conversation if American citizens ALREADY have and get FREE health care!