It is this reporter’s opinion that, after covering the invasion by illegal aliens over the past 40 years, it is difficult to find a story such as that related by Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times concerning illegal alien Ana Puente.
“Ana was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care,” said Gorman.
The child underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a small child in 1989, and a third in 1998 — all totally paid for by the state of California.
Now it is reported that Puente has turned 21 and is due for another transplant. But she has aged out of her state-funded health insurance and is unable to continue to receive treatment at UCLA.
Her liver is failing again with her clinical course irreversible. Now we learn of a little-known option for a patient with certain healthcare needs such as hers.
Gorman says that if Puente notifies U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services that she is in the country illegally, state health officials may grant her full Medi-Cal coverage.
Puente has done so and has had her benefits restored. She currently awaits a fourth transplant at UCLA.
Puente shrugs this off saying UCLA should take care of her for the rest of her life, “because I’ve been there since I was a baby.”
With examples such as this, is it any wonder America faces financial bankruptcy with hospitals all over the nation closing while hardworking taxpayers pick up the cost?
Should illegals be the recipient of expensive transplant surgery? The tremendous cost of transplant surgery such as a liver transplant amounts to one-half million dollars, with additional post operative medical care, including the cost of anti-rejection medications, costing an estimate $30,000 annually.
In California alone, almost 4,000 residents are on a waiting list for liver transplants.
Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, advocates placing stricter controls on immigration. He says the public should not be funding any kind of benefits for people who are breaking the law.
There are situations where American citizens do an honest day’s work every day, pay their taxes, and still cannot afford healthcare for themselves and their families. Yet, they earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal coverage.
There are also the sad cases of American citizens who do not have health coverage and become seriously ill only to have their insurance company cancel their coverage.
Yet there are some who say illegals should receive the same care provided to legal citizens, and that immigration status should not play a role in the allocation of organs for transplant.
Dr. Michael Shapiro, vice chairman of the ethics committee for the organ network, is one such person. He says illegals have just as much right to organ transplants as U.S. citizens.
Shapiro says probably more illegal immigrants donate organs than receive them and that when a surgeon makes an “incision in an organ donor, you don’t find little American flags planted on their organs.”
It is time that California and other states conduct a major overhaul of their healthcare system.
Meanwhile, Ana Puente awaits her fourth liver transplant at UCLA, all at taxpayers' expense.
This is one reporter’s opinion. We welcome yours.
Listen to George Putnam at www.CRNTALK.com.
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