On Wednesday I was given the opportunity, by Dick Purtan on WOMC Radio in Detroit, to share information with his audience on the recent recommendation on mammogram utilization (or lack of) by The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

This is a very critical foreshadowing of what is coming to EVERY person, family and business in our country if the current legislation advocated by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid and the Democratic Majority in Congress is passed into law.

The foundation for rationing is already in place by the establishment of The Federal Coordinating Council For Comparative Effectiveness Research (The Rationing Board) through the “hidden” health care portion of The Stimulus Bill. The recently passed Health Care Bill in The House and the recently proposed Health Care Bill in The Senate further empower RATIONING and DENYING OF CARE as the main mechanism of cutting costs … the most inhumane and unethical means to do so.

Today it is rationing of tests … tomorrow it WILL be the rationing of treatment. Below is the link to the interview with Dick Purtan, who has been a strong advocate of our prevention based approach for over 20 years.

Dick Purtan interviews Dr. Dave Janda

Malia and Sasha Obama have not been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the vaccine is not available to them based on their risk.

Currently, only children with chronic medical conditions whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight off the virus are being vaccinated. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children from 6 months to 18 years of age get the H1N1 vaccination. 

For many parents the biggest drawback to getting the vaccination is the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which has been used in vaccines and other products since the 1930s.

The H1N1 vaccine can include thimerosal, but the CDC insists that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the preservative in low doses causes anything except for redness and swelling at the injection site.

The CDC also insists that no link between thimerosal and autism has been proven scientifically, a conclusion widely disputed by the National Autism Association and other non-profit organizations.

School systems have been notifying parents to return consent forms quickly for their child to receive an H1N1 vaccination during school clinics. Students will be able to get the vaccine unless they have underlying medical problems.

The CDC wants the public to know that a regular seasonal flu shot will not protect against the H1N1 virus.

Will Brother O subject his own children to the “benefits” of the H1N1 vaccine, or will he follow in the footsteps of committee Democrats, who exempted themselves from enrollment in the public option, and go on to opt out his kids from taking the vaccine while promoting it as beneficial for average Americans?

Time will tell.

ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke discussed the role of ACORN and SEIU in the government takeover of healthcare during a book signing in New Orleans.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have a symbiotic relationship. Rathke called SEIU “one of the pillars of the ACORN family of organizations.”

While serving as ACORN’s Chief Organizer, Rathke created SEIU Locals 100 (Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas) and 880 (Illinois, Indiana and Kansas). After establishing SEIU, Rathke held executive positions in labor unions while working as ACORN’s Chief Organizer.

ACORN whistle-blowers swore SEIU and a coalition of labor unions gave ACORN $1,729,462 for political activities and union organizing in 2008, mixing together taxpayer money and union funding. It would seem that the American taxpayer has been picking up the tab to promote Rathke’s political agenda and advance his unionizing activities.

While governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich signed an executive order allowing collective bargaining, which helped SEIU unionize health-care workers. The mega-union had been Blagojevich’s biggest supporter, donating more than $1.8 million over two campaigns for governor.

Now SEIU is in the process of building an empire to handle America’s healthcare needs, which explains its unrelenting fight for a public option. Obviously, the mega-union envisions greater demand for its services and plans to mine the mother load of new dues-paying members.

The Congressional Budget Office published its preliminary estimate Wednesday of the health overhaul bill crafted in secret by Montana Senator Max Baucus’s Finance Committee. According to CBO, the Bill’s $829 billion ten year cost would be offset by $910 billion in “savings,” resulting in a net $81 billion reduction in the federal budget deficit by 2019.

Right. Take a deep breath.

Included in the “savings” estimates are about $507 billion, that is one-half a trillion dollars in new taxes and penalties and $404 billion in cost reductions. Most of the cost reductions would come on the backs of service providers, meaning service cuts to Medicare recipients, and a preliminary reading suggests a majority of the new taxes would come from higher income clients who pay for their service already. It includes a 40 percent excise tax on the more generous health-insurance plans, but due to inflation, over time this tax would cover lower cost plans as well.

It gets better.

The operating assumptions underlying cost estimates are usually heroically optimistic and peppered with backside-covering caveats. The assumptions used are also the place to spot future problems. Taken directly from the CBO report, the following should give any reasonable person pause:

These projections assume the proposals are enacted and remain unchanged throughout the next two decades, which is often not the case for major legislation. (Emphasis mine.)

That is an understatement. When legislation like this passes it is almost always bare bones, a camel’s nose under the tent. Once they have managed to sign the bill into law, legislators come out of the woodwork turning it into a Christmas tree for new proposals.

Every piece of similar legislation in the past, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and any other entitlement you can name grew exponentially after it became law, not merely because the program attracted so many beneficiaries, but primarily because legislators added new provisions on an almost yearly basis.

That is what will happen with this bill. Although it will likely happen much faster, because complete socialization of medicine is the ultimate goal, and they have been working to achieve this for almost a century. Read on:

The projected savings for the proposal reflect the cumulative impact of a number of specifications that would constrain payment rates for providers of Medicare services. (Emphasis mine)

This will cause service cuts to Medicare. Expect to see doctors abandon ship en masse. Here are some more gems:

Payments to physicians would be lowered by constraining Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) increases.

While this amounts to price controls — a bad thing — it is a big part of the cost savings in this bill. The Cato Institute claims that Congress routinely blocks such restraints and will do so again. If that happens, there goes $200 billion in “savings.” Cato has found an additional $108 billion in federal spending it says CBO overlooked:

Payment rates for many other service providers would be held below the level of inflation. (Emphasis mine.)

In real terms, this amounts to a pay cut (read more shortages.) Now here is the kicker:

The projected longer-term savings for the proposal also assume that the Medicare Commission is relatively effective at reducing costs –beyond the reductions that would be achieved by other aspects of the proposal…

Medicare Commission? What is that? Could it possibly be the dreaded Death Panel?

The proposal would also establish a Medicare Commission, which would be required, under certain circumstances, to recommend changes to the Medicare program to limit the rate of growth in that program’s spending.

Death Panel? C’mon! Don’t be ridiculous! That was only what that silly Palin girl called it. This is simply a reasonable effort to control costsas some lawyer at Oxford University Press Blog described.

Granny, grandpa, ruuuun! 

This Commission is severely restricted in the current proposal as indicated by the relatively paltry savings CBO projected due to its activities: $22 billion. Yet the statement above clearly suggests that a much bigger role for the Commission is envisioned in later years.

And finally:

The long-term budgetary impact could be quite different if those provisions were ultimately changed or not fully implemented.

So in order to make this thing work there will be $500 billion in new taxes and service cuts totalling another $400 billion, and most of those cuts will be achieved by this new ”Medicare Commission.” Great!

But they didn’t tell you everything. The CBO made vague references to “national health expenditures”:

Members have also requested information about the effect of proposals on national health expenditures (NHE). CBO does not analyze NHE as closely as it does the federal budget, however, and at this point the agency has not assessed the net effect of the current proposal on NHE…

Whoa! What do we call this, an er…ah… oversight?

They are talking about an additional one trillion dollars!

Over half the bill’s mandates are unfunded and fall on businesses and individuals, and so are not counted in the “cost to government!”

This information is what killed Hillary’s proposal in 1994 and is the reason they kept it out of this one!

And here is the last shocker of this CBO estimate: they did it without even seeing the legislation! None was provided to them to make these estimates, so we still don’t even know what’s really in the bill!

There are a host of other frauds being perpetrated on us right now by our government regarding health care. So let’s get something straight about the high percentage of GDP (16-17 percent) devoted to healthcare in this country, because it is widely misunderstood.

First, most of the excessive costs of American medical care are the result of government intervention. In fact proponents of socialized medicine anticipated that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid would create a crisis in health care, generating calls for reform. Their ready answer was just more of the same.

We would all like to see costs of medical care come down. This country should move to reduce costs by removing the causes: excessive government intervention that distorts the market. The many ways government intervenes and the many solutions are beyond the scope of this essay, but that is the answer.

But more importantly, even were this not true, it is irrelevant. It is not a zero sum game! This is the mistake all socialists make. You have heard the argument: “If we spend less on health care, we can spend more on other things.”

When government confiscates the income generated by productive activity in one sector of the economy (it doesn’t matter which sector), and transfers it to a sector of the economy that produces nothing (the government) the entire economy suffers.

Conversely, the healthcare sector of the economy is largely self-supporting – or would be, if the government got out of the way. That is, it thrives, without government help, on the productive activity of its professionals with the dollars voluntarily contributed by its clients (you and I).

You and I are not constrained by what we voluntarily pay in order to stay healthy. We are constrained by parasitic government activity that confiscates today at least one third of our annual earnings without providing commensurate benefit.

This country chooses a high level of care. We prefer it that way, and so far, we have been able to afford it. Government’s growing intrusion into the healthcare market may put costs out of reach, but be clear on the cause!

However, with ever higher taxes and ever more regulation over everything we do, our government is gradually strangling us. Now they are spending not only our hard-earned dollars, but a good portion of the dollars future generations are expected to earn before they are even able to earn it. Will they be able to?

And now House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been caught on tape calling for a Value-Added-Tax (VAT) to pay for the healthcare bill and other goodies. Does this mean even the Democrats recognize CBO’s cost estimate is a fraud? They should, because it is.

The healthcare overhaul bill currently hiding in the Senate Finance Committee of Max Baucus is a walking disaster. Proponents of this monstrosity claim we have to do something or things will get worse. Newsflash: things can always get worse, and under this bill they certainly will.

[Cross-posted from the DC Independent Examiner.]

Now that it’s been discovered that Medicare’s denial rate is roughly 1.7 times that of the top private carriers combined, will the AMA and Brother O’s “cherry picked” medical practitioners continue to sacrifice what’s left of their professional integrity and creditability to promote a government-run health care system that is more likely to deny patient care than administer it?

Supporters of ObamaCare’s public option parrot bromides damning private insurance companies for denying claims and canceling coverage.

“We are held hostage at any given moment by health insurance companies that deny coverage or drop coverage or charge fees that people can’t afford,” Brother O said in August.

Brother O neglected to mention that the worst offender is the oft touted government model, Medicare. The American Medical Association (AMA) and Brother O’s cherry-picked medical professionals endorse the public option because, like Medicare, it would be a better provider for patients when it comes to decision-making autonomy and the ability to get patients the care they need.

Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting, discovered in the AMA’s 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card that Medicare is most likely to reject a claim, denying 6.85 percent or 475,566 claims, which is more than the seven top commercial health insurers and is double their average.

Gossage’s findings mean the AMA, the cherry-picked medical professionals, and the ObamaCare supporters have endorsed a plan “whose closest existing example is the most frequent denier of claims.”

In television ads and news releases, supporters of ObamaCare have shamelessly portrayed insurance companies as insensitive greedy louts with itchy fingers on hair triggers willingly to deny claims for wealth. 

Will the shameless supporters of ObamaCare now portray the government-run insurer Medicare as a cold-blooded bunch of bookkeepers and bureaucrats? The cows will be home long before such a portrayal happens.

Health care workers must be immunized against H1N1 by November 30 or lose their jobs, said New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines. Health Department officials approved the regulation in August, making New York the only state in the country to mandate seasonal and swine flu immunizations for all health care providers, including doctors.

Some nurses and health care providers say the regulation not only violates their personal freedom but also puts them at risk for severe neurological disorders such as Guillain Barre syndrome and death without legal redress. The federal government has extended “liability immunity against tort claims” for its five swine H1N1 flu vaccine contractors should their vaccines be linked to sickness, nerve-damage, or death.

Opponents’ concerns regarding the H1N1 vaccine are not unfounded. The last federal government swine-flu vaccination program in 1976 was a debacle. Outbreaks of Guillain Barre syndrome were linked to the flu shot, and the national immunization campaign was shut down after just 10 weeks.

Even though the Public Employees Federation has urged union members to comply with the regulation, many health care providers are angry that they are being compelled to take H1N1 flu shots. “No one wants to be forced to take a vaccine that’s been hurried through the approval process,” said Helena Kosorek, spokeswoman for the New York Healthcare Concerned Citizens Group.

Nurse Kristi Tramposch said she is reluctant to take the shot because of the “toxic substances that go into vaccines” and prefers to wait until enough people have taken it before she even considers it.
 
Typically, only 40 to 50 percent of New York’s health care workers are vaccinated yearly against influenza, but Daines predicts opponents will ultimately comply with the directive and roll up their sleeves.

Hundreds of health care workers opposed to the mandatory H1N1 flu shot are expected to rally today at the State Capitol Building in Albany.

Terminally ill patients die prematurely under the British system of socialized medicine, a subtle form of euthanasia. Many are condemned to die too soon under the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) death forecasting scheme, the London Telegraph reports. Leading experts, who care for the terminally ill, claim that some patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.”

The NHS scheme, known as the Liverpool Care Pathway, puts terminally ill patients on the fast track by withdrawing fluid and drugs and administering continuous sedation until they die.

Under Pathway guidelines, the medical team treating the patient decides when the patient is close to death. To determine whether the patient is a candidate for Pathway, the team looks for signs, which include if the patient is unconsciousness or has difficulty swallowing medication.

The experts caution that these signs can also point to other medical problems. For example, side effects from pain-killers such as morphine or the effects of dehydration can cause patients to become semi-conscious and confused.

Once a patient is put on Pathway, the guidelines recommend that doctors stop giving medications and invasive procedures, such as intravenous drips. The problem for some patients is that they have been “wrongly” diagnosed to Pathway, and this becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy”; they believe they are about to die, so they die.

Experts also worry that too many doctors are not regularly monitoring patients for improvement in their condition once they start on Pathway. The patient is administered drugs through a syringe driver that continually infuses them over 24 hours until the patient is “terminally” sedated.

The Pathway scheme, which was designed to reduce the suffering of cancer patients in their final hours, has now accounted for about one in six of all deaths in the UK between 2007-08, twice as many as in Belgium and the Netherlands, according to research by Clive Seale, professor of medical sociology at Bart’s and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Palliative care experts point out that death forecasting is an inexact science and when patients are sedated it becomes that much harder to determine if their condition is improving. The UK’s unusually high percentage of deaths by continuous deep sedation (CDS) suggests the possibility that the NHS may be administering the Pathway scheme as a subtle form of euthanasia.

A Department of Health spokesman said, “The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is an established and recommended tool that help[s] … [m]any people receive excellent care at the end of their lives.” The concern over the NHS Pathway scheme is not about how many people received excellent care; it’s about the Pathway of death for those who did not.

Pending Massachusetts legislation would compel unproven vaccinations, authorize warrantless entry to private homes, and penalize for non-compliance.

According to Massachusetts’ “Pandemic Response Bill” 2028, once the governor declares a state of emergency or declares an emergency exists that is considered detrimental to public health, the local public health authority, with approval of the commissioner, has the authority to:

• require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;
• close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended;
• decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
• restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons;
• require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority;
• control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area;
• adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
• procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;
• require in-state health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth;
• waive the commonwealth’s licensing requirements for health care professionals with a valid license from another state in the United States or whose professional training would otherwise qualify them for an appropriate professional license in the commonwealth;
• allow for the dispensing of controlled substance by appropriate personnel consistent with federal statutes as necessary for the prevention or treatment of illness;
• authorize the chief medical examiner to appoint and prescribe the duties of such emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of office;
• collect specimens and perform tests on any animal, living or deceased;
• exercise authority under sections 95 and 96 of chapter 111;
• care for any emerging mental health or crisis counseling needs that individuals may exhibit, with the consent of the individuals.

The bill would give state and local agencies power over transportation routes, communication devices, carriers, public utilities, fuels, food, clothing and shelter, and subject citizens to “involuntary transportation,” physical examinations, tests, and specimen collection. Citizens who refuse would be isolated, quarantined, or detained “for as long as may be reasonably necessary.”

In addition, the bill would authorize law enforcement authorities to:

“arrest without warrant any person whom the officer has probable cause to believe has  violated an order for isolation or quarantine … Any person who knowingly violates an  order for isolation or quarantine shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than 30  days and may be subject to a civil fine of not more than $1,000 per day that the violation continues.”

The progeny of the citizens acclaimed for “the shot heard ’round the world,” appear now to be cowering in abject servitude to a tyrannical government that is about to strip away their rights to free assembly, enter their homes and businesses without their approval, and investigate and quarantine them without their consent.

While the proposed bill awaits approval in the House, Massachusetts citizens could take a few moments to ponder the thoughtful insight of Alexis de Tocqueville:

“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice  the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

Historically, immigrants to the United States have undergone health screening upon arrival at our borders or shores, to prevent catastrophic epidemic outbreaks in America. Writing about the history of Ellis Island in the academic publication Medicine and Health Rhode Island, prolific health science writer Dr. Stanley M. Aronson notes:

The immigrants, each with their names and geographic sites of origin inscribed on a piece of paper attached to their shirts, climbed a flight of stairs before entering the huge inspection hall. During this brief transit, they were carefully observed for visible signs of lameness, excessive physical weakness, pathologic lesions or mental aberration. Medical inspectors wrote appropriate chalk marks on the immigrants’ shoulders (e.g., G for goiter, L for lameness, X for mental deficiency). The immigrants were then channeled into twelve narrow aisles at the head of which was a vigilant uniformed public health physician who conducted what has sometimes been called the six-second inspection. Since twelve examining physicians were expected to certify the health of some 5,000 immigrants per day, the medical inspections were brief. The eyes and scalp were rigorously examined for signs of trachoma, scalp infection or lice.

Imagine, if you will, the anxiety, the inner turmoil, the dread experienced by each immigrant as he or she lined up for the rapid inspection, knowing that any hint of a number of organic illnesses or emotional states, deemed to be unsuitable for a future American resident, might be the basis for disqualification, shipment back to the old country and disruption of the family.

The 1903 published guidelines for examining physicians stated that certain diseases constituted unequivocal grounds for exclusion and therefore for shipment back to the old country. These dangerous and loathsome illnesses were first, trachoma, a highly contagious eye infection and one of the major causes of blindness today, especially in tropical regions. Early symptoms of trachoma included redness of the eyes with some discharge; and so mothers, fearful that their children might be rejected for admission, blindfolded them for the duration of the ocean voyage, many weeks, in the naive hope that this would cause their eyes to appear clear and unaffected. The second major ailment was pulmonary tuberculosis. A stethoscope was sometimes employed, but most of the time the diagnosis was reached by the nature of the cough and the degree of weight loss. Other excludable diseases included leprosy and various venereal diseases….

More recently, vigilance against the Asian bird flu has been prominent in the news. Mainstream media have given this subject extensive coverage, profiting from the readership that their scare-mongering inspires. The Center for Disease Control warns:

The avian influenza A (H5N1) epizootic (animal outbreak) in Asia and parts of Europe, the Near East, and Africa is not expected to diminish significantly in the short term. It is likely that H5N1 infection among birds has become endemic in certain areas and that human infections resulting from direct contact with infected poultry and/or wild birds will continue to occur. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare , limited and unsustained. No evidence for genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza A virus genes has been found; however, this epizootic continues to pose an important public health threat.

There is little pre-existing natural immunity to H5N1 infection in the human population. If these H5N1 viruses gain the ability for efficient and sustained transmission among humans, an influenza pandemic could result, with potentially high rates of illness and death….

Note how seriously our government and media respond to something that might happen. Why then is there no concern about something horrific that is happening? The flood of illegal aliens across our southern border spreads throughout our country, wherever day laborers and domestic workers find opportunity. With them they bring tapeworms and tuberculosis. They undergo no health screening as they slip across the Rio Grande at night. But our media deem it politically incorrect to caution the public about these dangers.

Owned by the Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon, the Washington Times is less restricted. They have acknowledged the incursion of tapeworm disease:

Parasitic infection plagues states along Mexico border
By Joyce Howard Price
February 8, 2007

Federal researchers say neurocysticercosis, a brain infection caused by a pork tapeworm, is a “growing public health problem in the United States,” especially in states bordering Mexico, where the disease is endemic.

Neurocysticercosis is the “most common parasitic disease of the central nervous system,” according to a study jointly conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California public health officials, who reported that “international travel and immigration are bringing the disorder to areas where it is not endemic,” such as this country.

“Neurocysticercosis is the primary cause of epilepsy in endemic areas. This brain worm is very serious,” Victor C. Tsang, chief of the immunochemistry laboratory in the Parasitic Disease Division of the CDC said in a telephone interview….

“Recent data indicate cysticercosis is an important cause of death in California,” Mr. Tsang and other authors wrote in a recent report on the disease published in the European medical journal Acta Neurologica Scandinavica….

“In Hispanics and Latinos, neurocysticercosis accounts for 13.5 percent of [U.S.] emergency-room visits for seizures,” federal and California investigators wrote in their report in Acta Neurologica Scandinavica published late last year. “The growth is mainly due to immigration from endemic developing countries,” they reported….

Bottom line — the illegal immigrants who come here and take jobs in agriculture, domestic service, and fast food restaurants put us at risk for this brain disease. Also, they burden our health care system (and our tax dollars) with their own medical care for cysticercosis. And this is a pathogen that would not be spreading in our country if it were not for illegal immigration.

Tuberculosis, once thought to be well under control in the United States, is also on the rise as the illegals bring new drug resistant strains into our population. An article at About: Lung Diseases states:

Illegal Immigrants May be Bringing Tuberculosis Into U.S.
Government officials believe illegal immigrants are responsible for spreading tuberculosis to the U.S. Most illegal immigrants come from countries where health care is inadequate, and/or the immigrants lived in poor areas where they do not or can not seek proper health care. This puts them at risk for developing and dying from curable diseases, such as tuberculosis….

Tuberculosis is on the rise, affecting over 50 million people in over 30 countries. The toughest tuberculosis to control is multidrug-resistant tuberculosis….

The respected business publication Investor’s Business Daily discussed this problem in a widely excerpted article:

Give Us Your Sick
24-JUN-05

The Border: Among the consequences of illegal immigration we can now add the reappearance of infectious diseases long thought eradicated or under control.

In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Reuben Granich, a lead investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports the emergence in the U.S. of a particularly virulent, multidrug-resistant form of tuberculosis known as MDR-TB.

“Evidence of it has surfaced in 38 of 61 California health jurisdictions, and it could ‘threaten the efficacy of TB control efforts,’ Granich said. The infected were said to be four times as likely to die from the disease and twice as likely to transmit the disease to others.

“Reluctant to label the infected as ‘illegal’ or even ‘undocumented’ aliens, the report notes that of the 407 known cases of MDR-TB, 84% were ‘foreign-born’ patients, mainly from Mexico and the Philippines who’d been in the U.S. less than five years. The percentage of TB cases among the ‘foreign-born’ jumped from 29% in 1993 to 53% as of last year….

We find this report in The Journal of the American Physicians and Surgeons:

Volume 10 Number 1 – Spring 2005
Illegal Aliens and American Medicine
By Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Ph.D., Esq.

The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences. We judge reality primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more expensive, and more deadly than what is seen….

What is unseen is their free medical care that has degraded and closed some of America’s finest emergency medical facilities, and caused hospital bankruptcies: 84 California hospitals are closing their doors. ‘Anchor babies’ born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income….

By default, we grant health passes to illegal aliens. Yet many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease….

Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Ph.D., Esq., is a medical lawyer who formerly taught medical students at the City University of New York. She has written an outstanding report on the impact of illegal immigration to the American health care system. Her findings are extensively documented with impeccable professional references and scholarly papers — there is no political agenda here, just findings based on research and facts. The report is available in PDF format here. We urge our readers to study it.

Summarizing her findings, Cosman concludes:

We must choose either to surrender medicine to illegal aliens, or to fight illegal aliens. Surrender to illegal aliens is surrender to collectivist America: land of moral ambiguity and home of pacifist appeasement. Fighting against illegal aliens is fighting for individualistic America: land of moral strength, and home of responsible liberty.

As we fight to reclaim medicine, so we defend our nation.

Do not shrug this off as a problem for California and other southwestern states. Now we are all paying for it. In 2005 the government worked out a plan to use federal tax revenue to reimburse health care providers for the mandatory treatment of illegal aliens. From a report by CNN News:

U.S. to pay medical bills for illegal immigrants
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Health care providers can charge the government for emergency care provided to illegal aliens beginning Tuesday.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued final guidance Monday that sets up a system for reimbursement. Lawmakers set aside $1 billion over four years for the program, created by Medicare legislation passed in 2003….

Two-thirds of the money will be distributed to health care providers based on a state’s percentage of undocumented aliens. The remaining third will go to providers in the six states with the largest number of arrests of undocumented aliens.

The states receiving the highest amounts in the current fiscal year are California, $70.8 million; Texas, $46 million; Arizona, $45 million; and New York, $12.25 million….

Last year the talking heads drummed up the specter of the black plague, salivating over the fear-driven media ratings as they asked over and over, “Should we be worried about the bird flu?” (When there is no factual news to frighten us with, they ask a rhetorical question repeatedly until it assumes the stature of real news in the minds of the American public.) But faced with a real and demonstrated danger that we should be warned about, they are frozen in the silence of political correctness.

We must control our borders. We must permit only legal, and consequently health-screened, immigration. It is not a question of meeting labor force requirements. It is not about being compassionate to foreigners who seek opportunity. It is a medical issue of life or death, of survival for our own legal citizens.

Previous articles in our Illegal Immigration series:

The Crider Case
Illegals Deadlier Than War On Terror
Going By The Numbers
The Price of Lettuce