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Court: State must cover care for illegals
Justices reject bid by agency to limit in-hospital Medicaid

By Jon Dougherty
? 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

The Arizona Supreme Court has rejected a plea by the state's Medicaid provider to limit medical coverage for illegal immigrants to emergency room and acute care.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, manager of the state's Medicaid program, is obligated to provide care to illegals beyond emergency room and other acute care wards, justices ruled unanimously Thursday.

According to Capitol Media Services and the Arizona Daily Star, AHCCCS ? which currently pays $75 million to $80 million a year in emergency care for illegals ? had refused to reimburse hospitals for services it said were not covered. About one-third of that amount is covered by state taxpayers; the federal government covers the rest.

Critics of providing unlimited medical care to illegals argue many of them use emergency departments as clinics, a practice that not only can delay care for others but, since E.R. care is more expensive, can also raise the overall costs of operating a hospital. This is especially true in areas suffering from high immigration.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the cost of providing medical care to illegals in and around Los Angeles is rising so fast that many hospitals have cut services or closed emergency departments.

According to Project USA, an immigration reform group, the problem is "epidemic" throughout California. The group adds the problem is compounded because fewer taxes are being paid to support care for illegals.

"Since employers usually pay illegal aliens 'off the books,' neither the employer nor the workers pay payroll taxes," the group says.

Regarding health care, former immigration Lawyer Matt Hayes said "it is amazing that America is willing to provide free medical treatment to people who are not citizens ? and even illegal aliens ? while the home countries of most all of those people will not do so."

"For the fiscally conservative, free medical treatment for illegal aliens in an emergency is better than free medical treatment for illegal aliens for all maladies, all the time," Hayes said in a column for Fox News.

"But because America is now deluged with illegal immigrants like it has never been ? 8 million by the most recent government estimate ? the cost to taxpayers, even for emergency medical treatment, has skyrocketed," he said.

The Border Counties Coalition, formed by the elected officials of the 24 U.S. counties that border Mexico, Hayes said, reported medical expenses for illegal immigrations in 2000 was $832 million just for those counties. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., says the cost to the entire nation is in the billions. "According to one estimate, the cost of providing federally-mandated health care to illegal immigrants is between $1.5 billion and $2 billion annually," he said in a Jan. 11, 2002 statement.