This article about Luis Jimenez, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant who was deported back to his country by a private hospital is particularly representative of the dismal crossroads between the two heavy issues: Immigration and Health-care.Today, the New York Times featured another article entitled "Deported in a Coma, Saved Back in U.S" about these issues and the similar story of Antonio Torres.
Check out the slide-show and also go back and see the video featured (along with the article of course). His reading of the letter towards the end, brought tears to my eyes and simultaneously provoked extreme anger. How do we rectify such things? What would be the just outcome in this case?
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/01/us/20080803DEPORT_index.html
Deported in a Coma, Saved Back in U.S.
Antonio Torres’s case illustrates the haphazard way that the health care system handles uninsured immigrants.
His story is one that is not only characterized by the same outrageous indifference to humanity and patient welfare, but also a dismissal of potential alternatives to cross-border shuffling of immigrant patients. THIS time the patient was a LEGAL immigrant without insurance whose rights were clearly overlooked. Yet, today's article also provides some hope (with a brief reference to the article about Mr. Jiminez).
In October, the California Medical Association, responding to an article in The New York Times about the medical deportation of a brain-injured Guatemalan, passed a resolution opposing the forced repatriation of patients. The American Medical Association is to take up the matter on Sunday at a national meeting in Orlando.
So far, the article seems to do a good job of delineating the complexity of this issue for both health care institutions and patients without losing sight of key areas that need reform. I'll follow up with a more completel post when I've finished reading the whole thing. :)
