Immigrants Facing Deportation in American Hospitals

A man is sent back to Guatemala after American hospitals decide they can no longer afford to rehabilitate him after he is injured by a drunk driver in Florida.  Apparently many illegal immigrants are deported while hospitalized and incapacitated.  Read the article here.

This exposes some of the many things wrong with the health care system and how the government deals with immigration.  While American hospitals' first priorities should certainly to be to help American citizens reach some basic standard of health, hospitals should not have to shoulder the burden put upon them by illegal immigrants.  The government should not allow such things to happen, which they can do by making it easier for illegal immigrants to become legal.  Forcing these immigrants to remain illegal creates the situation where these people cannot seek regular medical care and must rely instead on extremely expensive emergency care.   I believe this is responsible for much of hospitals' (and Americans') belief that illegal immigrants are a heavy burden on the medical system.

Of course, this article doesn't really support this point, as it discusses an extreme case that couldn't be prevented, but I felt like it provided a good opportunity to bring up these issues.