April 14, 2009
FairUS.org
American taxpayers and health care providers pay a significant cost for the abuses of the American health care system by illegal aliens. The true cost of these abuses is passed on to American citizens and legal immigrants in the way of higher health care costs. Americans intuitively understand this fact, but a recent piece from The Chicago Tribune reveals just how expensive abuse of the health care system by illegal aliens can be. (The Chicago Tribune, March 15, 2009).
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The Tribune detailed the story of the late Mariana de la Torre, an illegal alien from Mexico who was diagnosed with cancer just a few months after she illegally came to the United States in December 2006. De la Torre purchased fraudulent identification, including the stolen Social Security number of a Texas female inmate, to obtain $530,000 worth of medical treatment including two surgical procedures, chemotherapy, radiation treatment from Illinois hospitals. De la Torre's revelation of her true identity in January 2009 prompted several health care providers that treated her to assess their vulnerability to medical identity theft. The Tribune noted that the costs associated with de la Torre's fraudulent claims are being borne by regional health systems and taxpayer-funded Medicaid, to the tune of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
This story should serve as a reminder that increased levels of immigration, both legal and illegal, have a significant impact on America's health care system. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 13.7 percent of native-born Americans were without health insurance in 2007 compared to 43.8 percent of foreign-born, non-citizens (a population that includes illegal aliens) and 33.2 percent of the foreign-born population as a whole (which includes naturalized citizens). (DHS Fact Sheet, February 2009). DHS reports that while the foreign-born population (which includes naturalized citizens, legal aliens and illegal aliens) represents just "12.5 percent of the total U.S. population, foreign-born individuals accounted for 27.1 percent of the uninsured population." In 2007, nearly 10 million foreign-born, non-citizens lacked health insurance. Amnesty would immediately make many illegal aliens eligible for taxpayer-funded health insurance programs.
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The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest.
FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest-more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.
