I was still half asleep when I heard this, but either the host or guest on a radio talk show said illegal aliens will usually receive free healthcare here in the U.S. But uninsured U.S. citizens are often expected to pay rather steep prices when they receive healthcare. I don't know if the following applies only to the Los Angeles area, the city itself, or on a state or national level-but I guess the healthcare facilities are not permitted to determine legal residence status.. It probably only applies to the city of Los Angeles. Then the host of this show stated the politicians will say, "we don't have the data" to study this problem. When they are the people who prevented the collection of that data in the first place.
Just recently, IIRC, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that anyone covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act could file a lawsuit against a state government. Some hospiitals and other healthcare providers have been going after uninsured patients in court. While I am not an attorney, if one such patient was covered under the ADA, he or she could probably file a lawsuit, possibly class-action, re: the differrence in how uninsured U.S. citizens are treated vs. how illegal aliens are treated (here speaking financially, rather than availability of healthcare). Perhaps even request punitive financial damages from the state government.
There are other questions here, such as how health insurance should be provided, if it is provided at all(i.e., should it be divorced from being part of an employment benefits package, etc.), and other issues, but here I'm primarily interested in the different financial treatment of different patients in the healthcare system.
PhaedrusZ




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