WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP

WEDNESDAY

FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGALS

Eviscerating any claim that illegals impose a miniscule burden on our health care system, the Review-Journal's Paul Harasim reports that 80 illegal immigrants with failing kidneys are receiving about $2 million worth of dialysis treatments each month at UMC. Brian Brannman, UMC's chief financial officer, projects that these 80 people alone will be responsible for about 35 percent of the public hospital's estimated $70 million deficit in the new fiscal year.

Bills for uncompensated care are forwarded to the recession-ravaged taxpayers of Clark County. ... And some in Congress bristle at the idea of cracking down on these serial abusers of our emergency services?

Plenty of politicians and liberal special-interest groups argue that taking steps to deny uncompensated care to illegal immigrants is beyond uncompassionate -- it's inhumane. But what about the humanitarian cost of forcing sick and suffering citizens who pay into the system to wait for hours in emergency rooms because of the manpower required to treat nonpaying noncitizens? ...

Moreover, what about the humanitarian cost of reducing and dismantling health care services to meet the demands of illegals? How is it compassionate to give away so much costly health care to illegal immigrants that a hospital finally must close its doors? ...

Let this government-sponsored mess finally put to rest the myth that the uninsured and poor are dying in the streets because they lack adequate access to health care. ...

The most urgent problems are rising costs and unfair cost-shifting. Illegals are a driving force behind both.