Let’s work for a win-win

Not wanting to be thought of as Scrooges -- and with the new year upon us -- we want to weigh in with some positive feedback from this year’s long Pilot Forum debate on immigration. If you trace the history of the voluminous Forum mail there has been a distinct shift in the direction and tone of letters on this emotional, factual and fractional issue.

Our comments are in two parts. First some general comments on the past year, and second, a look at the effects of immigration on medical care.

Earlier in 2005 there were relatively few Pilot letters and comments on the undocumented dilemma. There were whispers in the coffee shops but the subject was somewhat taboo in the written Forum because of political correctors in our midst.

As the situation worsened and many readers recovered from “PCism,” the Forum received and published frequent letters on immigration, albeit with much rhetoric, name-calling and the unfortunate playing of the race card.

Later the racism charges diminished as readers realized that the issues of protecting borders and safety had deep roots in our Constitution and laws. We could have saved a lot of anguish if one of our so-called leaders had just stepped forward and said this is not a racism issue -- in fact, to give any one group special privileges to avoid American laws is in itself racist.

At year’s end and with the impetus of weekly Pilot questions, the debate turned to how and who should deal with the illegal immigrant issue in Costa Mesa. Yes, there are many differing opinions, but collectively the readers are discussing solutions. You don’t discuss solutions without first admitting there is a problem.

The effect of illegal immigration on the medical system has received lesser coverage in the Forum, so we wanted to comment on this subtopic.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2000 the population of California had the highest percent of illegal immigrants in the country. The estimate by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was that there were 2.2 million immigrants residing illegally in the state, which was 31.6% of the estimated national total.

A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that in 2004 the annual uncompensated cost of medical care for illegal immigrants in California was $1.4 billion. Total uncompensated educational, healthcare and incarceration costs were estimated to be $10.5 billion.

Care is frequently provided to illegal immigrants by emergency rooms and is provided when a crisis exists rather than as preventive practice. Both phenomena add to the high cost of healthcare.

Many California hospitals cannot afford to absorb costs, and many are forced to close due to financial burden of treating illegal immigrants. Eighty-four California hospitals are closing their doors forever. Hospital closure degrades healthcare to all in the community and results in job loss.

Federal laws provide states incentives to provide Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants. All state Medicaid programs offer an endless list of services. Only four states check for citizenship before awarding Medicaid. California escalated in one year from 450,000 illegal immigrants on Medi-Cal in 2002 (California’s version of Medicaid) to 750,000 in 2003.

Medi-Cal covers maternity care, delivery expenses, and long-term care costs that are incurred for children born to illegal immigrants.

Are there potential solutions?

A number of potential solutions to reducing uncompensated healthcare costs require federal participation, which means that California’s U.S. senators and representatives must introduce federal legislation while state legislators and administrators do what is within their power to improve state laws and regulations.

Some potential solutions include:

* Adopt measures to systematically collect information on undocumented immigrant use of taxpayer-funded services. Healthcare providers and civil libertarians have blocked past attempts to collect such information.

* Withhold foreign aid to the country of origin in the amount spent providing uncompensated medical care and provide these funds to providers that granted services.

* Require graduates of U.S. medical schools who are citizens of foreign countries to spend community service time treating illegal immigrant patients in the U.S. as contribution in kind to defray expenses billable to that country of origin.

* Provide transportation to cities in country of origin where that country can provide medical care.

Lets resolve this new year to continue the progress made last year in Newport-Mesa by promoting a respectful exchange of ideas and opinions aimed at achieving a sensible, safe and equitable solution to the immigration issue. Using this as a compass, our citizens, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants and those who desire to come to America and play by the rules will have a better quality of life.

It is far better to work within a win-win, rather than a win-lose or loose-lose theme.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Arnold Glueck and Thomas R. Damiani are Newport Beach residents.

20060105isk0ajncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Oscar Torres, holding sign, Luis Torres, Roxana Guajardo and Salvador Sarmiento gather outside Costa Mesa City Hall on Tuesday to protest the council’s decision to enforce immigration laws locally.