[AGELESS]

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas is a fairly famous
institution and for a variety of reasons:

1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963;
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after; and,
3. Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, died there a few years
later, by coincidence.

On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity
ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year.
(That's almost 44 per day --- every day.)

A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave
birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants.

That's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas .

According to a Dallas Morning News article, the hospital spent $70.7
million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with
almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5
million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds
tossed in another $9.5 million.

The average patient in Parkland maternity wards is 25 years old, married
and giving birth to her second child.

She is also an illegal immigrant.

By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their
immigration status or ability to pay.

OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than
everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital ,
they do. Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics.

NINE!

The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a
patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child --- her
previous two was also born at Parkland . Her first two deliveries were
free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost ...

$200 to have them in Mexico .

This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the
delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not
that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they
even bother asking at this point.)

How long has this been going on? What are the long-term affects?

Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986
shortly after her mother entered the US illegally. Now she is having her
own child there as well. (That's right, she's technically a U.S. citizen.)

These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition,
birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as
car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.

Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only
for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost
insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide
any sort of legitimate identification or any proof of income. An
American citizen would have to provide a social security number which
would reveal their annual income. An illegal immigrant needs only to
claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.

Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who
earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did
not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care
is not so easy for Americans.)

There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for
un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for
free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the
hospital is going to sue them!

Illegals get it all free! But U.S. citizens who live outside of Dallas
County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn't annoying enough ...

Illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff
not speaking Spanish.

In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she
had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her
husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family
and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke
Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.

In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is
now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who
speak Spanish. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas
Southwestern , for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility,
will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already
jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a
ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

(Sorry for the length, but I think this needs wide circulation,
particularly to our 'employees' in Congress.)

Remember that this is only ONE hospital in Dallas , Texas . There must
be many more hospitals across our country that also have to deal with this.




If you want to verify accuracy: < I did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Parkland Memorial Hospital and Illegal Immigrants

[Gtarzan81]

I worked at an outpatient clinic attached to Parkland for a bit.
It's an interisting place.

[Desperado]

I am half mexican, I live in Texas, and I believe the whole situation is absurd. Lazy bums. They need to stop having kids, I dont think they've heard of a "condom". The framers of this country spoke english not spanish.

[Gtarzan81]

I have 0 problems with most hispanics. They are doing in this country what many have done before. Work very hard, and make a better life for themselves.
I worked for a painting company for a short time. As you can guess I worked with Hispanics. Those guys busted arse.

There are a few places around here where guys, who are 99% chance illegal, stand on corners to try to find work.

When's the last time you saw a "brother" do that?

[AGELESS]

very good.........

[Xodus]

Maybe American women should just go down to mexico and have their babies for $200 instead of shelling out the thousands it costs here in the states? Probably don't get a car seat and bottles though...

[Xodus]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/perso...ref=rss_latest

[vpower]

A lot of the minorities do work hard and actually try to better themselves but they also fill up a good majority of the jails-prisons..and are involved in a lot of criminal activity..ehhh what are u gonna do??

[Desperado]

Originally Posted by Gtarzan81

When's the last time you saw a "brother" do that?

agree, they are even worse....at least the hispanics work hard for their ****, "brothers" expect it handed to them.

[TheBreeze]

Originally Posted by Desperado

agree, they are even worse....at least the hispanics work hard for their ****, "brothers" expect it handed to them.

You got that right.

I work at two differant hospitals in Ohio. One is in a mid to low class city, the other is in a semi high class subburb of Cleveland. The Cleveland subburb has way less patients who are dirty, poor and illiterate. ( you'll have to excuse my spelling...) The low class hospital has what seems like more trashy poor folk on medicaid or with no insurance than any other type of patient. Plus the people with no insurance are always the ones asking how long its going to take.
I always want to ask them..."Why, its not like you have to go to work."

Healthcare is a joke in this country! The only reason I take x-rays is to help poeple and cause people are always gonna be sick and hurt in need of xrays, so I will always have a job.

Lots of times, I think it is cheaper NOT to have insurance.

Just my .02