Remark Parkland Memorial Hospital?
Don Gabacho
institution and for a variety of reasons . .
1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after
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
aliens . That's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas
According to the 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 is 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 were 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 US
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 aliens, they do not have to provide
any sort of legitimate identification - no proof of income. An
American citizen would have to provide a social security number which
would reveal their annual income - an illegal alien need only 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, the illegal alien 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.
Remember that this is only ONE hospital is Dallas , Texas . There are
many more hospitals across our country that also have to deal with
this.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY
U.S. CITIZEN AND LEGAL ALIEN YOU KNOW.
You can verify the accuracy at:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp