
<p><br />According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938<br />babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in<br />surplus funding.  Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers<br />kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.<br /><br />The average patient in Parkland in maternity wards is 25 years old, married<br />and giving birth to her second child.  She is also an illegal immigrant.  By<br />law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration<br />status or ability to pay.<br /><br />OK, fine.  That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday,<br />middle-class American citizens.  But at Parkland Hospital, they do.<br />Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics.  NINE.<br /><br />The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient<br />at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two<br />were also born at Parkland.  Her first two deliveries were free and the<br />Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in<br />Mexico.  This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for<br />the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money.  Not<br />that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away.  (I wonder why they even<br />bother asking at this point.)<br /><br />How long has this been going on?  What are the long-term effects?  Well,<br />another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after<br />her mother entered the US illegally - now she is having her own child there<br />as well.  (That's right; she's technically a US citizen.)<br /><br />These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition,<br />birthing classes and child care classes.  They also get freebies such as car<br />seats, bottles, diapers and formula.  Most of these things are available to<br />American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then,<br />the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.<br /><br />Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any<br />sort of legitimate identification - no proof of income.  An American citizen<br />would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their<br />annual income - an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the<br />hospital must take them at their word.<br /><br />Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn<br />less than $40,000 per year.  (They also have to prove that they did not<br />refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so<br />easy for Americans.)<br /><br />There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for<br />un-reimbursed medical care.  As it turns out, they did not qualify for free<br />treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is<br />going to sue them! Illegal's get it all free!  But U. S. citizens who live<br />outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?<br /><br />As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are<br />actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish.  In this AP<br />story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate<br />comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband.  The doctor<br />was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced<br />to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish.  This was apparently a<br />great injustice to her.  In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff,<br />Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for<br />applicants who speak Spanish.  Additionally, medical students at the<br />University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training<br />facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already<br />jammed-packed curriculum.  No other school in the country boasts such a<br />ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.<br /><br />Sorry for the length, but this needs wide circulation particularly to our<br />"employees" in Congress.  Remember that this is about only ONE hospital in<br />Dallas, Texas.  There are many more hospitals across our country that must<br />also deal with this.<br /><br />PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY U.S. CITIZEN YOU KNOW. <br /><br />If you want to verify accuracy:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp" target="_blank" title="http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp CTRL + Click to follow link"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0066cc;">http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp</span></span></a></p>
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