National Health Care-Obama Plan

[Seenterman]

MakAttack I don't believe anyone responded to your article about a hospital deporting a patient so I have.  The lawsuit wasn't about the hospital ejecting the patient and refusing to continue care (even though that might have been the reason the hospital did what it did), the lawsuit was about the hospital deporting a mentally handicapped man to Guatemala. If that doesn't sound cold, I don't know what is.

But without telling Jimenez's family — and the day after Gaspar filed an emergency request to stop the hospital's plan — Martin Memorial put Jimenez on a $30,000 charter flight home early on July 10, 2003.

Weeks later, Jimenez was released from the Guatemalan hospital and soon wound up in his aging mother's one-room home in a remote mountain village.

The case has raised the question of whether a hospital and a state court should be deciding whether to deport someone — a power long held by the federal government.

Granted the hospital paid 1.5 million in care for this man, but if they had just kicked him out the door in the care of his brother / family / legal guardian I would have been fine with their actions. A private institutional should not be placed under such a financial burden, but the hospital and state court decided to deport a mentally ill man on their own. No mention of ICE which would have been the appropriate LE agency to refer this too, no a hospital went beyond their authority and then got sued. 

[makattak]

MakAttack I don't believe anyone responded to your article about a hospital deporting a patient so I have.  The lawsuit wasn't about the hospital ejecting the patient and refusing to continue care (even though that might have been the reason the hospital did what it did), the lawsuit was about the hospital deporting a mentally handicapped man to Guatemala. If that doesn't sound cold, I don't know what is.

Granted the hospital paid 1.5 million in care for this man, but if they had just kicked him out the door in the care of his brother / family / legal guardian I would have been fine with their actions. A private institutional should not be placed under such a financial burden, but the hospital and state court decided to deport a mentally ill man on their own. No mention of ICE which would have been the appropriate LE agency to refer this too, no a hospital went beyond their authority and then got sued. 

Yeah, the hospital wasn't allowed to discharge him without a court order. My point was not that they got sued AFTER discharging him to Guatemala, but that they could not discharge him without a court order:

However, under federal law, Martin Memorial was required to care for Jimenez until someone else would take him. Because of his immigration status, no one else would. But hospitals that receive Medicare reimbursements are required to provide emergency care to all patients and must provide an acceptable discharge plan once the patient is stabilized.
The lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala...

Jimenez spent nearly three years at Martin Memorial before the hospital, backed by a letter from the Guatemalan government, got a Florida judge to OK the transfer to a facility in that country.

You'll note they were responsible for his care, under Federal Law. Yep, look how terribly people without insurance get treated! They get over 1.5 million dollars of care, free lawyers to keep them in the hospital and a $30,000 plan ride home!

Whew, how heartless we are.

[Seenterman]

You missed the entire point. The hospital didn't discharge him to Guatemala, their hospital isn't located in Guatemala. They deported him.

However, under federal law, Martin Memorial was required to care for Jimenez until someone else would take him. Because of his immigration status, no one else would.

Because of his brain injury, his cousin Montejo Gaspar was made his legal guardian.

True they were obligated to take care of him, but instead of going behind the scenes and secretly deporting him without his family knowledge the hospital should have petitioned the court system to have Mr. Gaspar be responsible for his medical care and to have him released into his care. I don't understand how Gaspar could be his legal guardian but not be responsible for him. I'm not 100% sure on this but it seems that the need for a court order to discharge him was needed because he was mentally handicapped, not based on his immigration status; which if accurate wouldn't be ridiculous. Maybe one of our legal eagles can explain better? Yea the court system in this country sucks. It can take a long time and cost you alot of money, but its the legal way to do things. Instead they somehow convinced a state court (not its jurisdiction) to somehow approve a back door deportation.

In 2004, an appeals court ruled the lower court had overstepped its authority, and that the hospital did not have the right to return Jimenez to Guatemala.

Before sending them to the jury room Thursday, Martin County Senior Judge James Midelis told jurors that the appeals court had already decided that Jimenez was "unlawfully detained and deprived of liberty." Midelis said the jury's task was to decide whether the hospital's actions were "unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances," and whether its actions had in turn caused Jimenez damage.

Machaud said the hospital was simply following a judge's order at the time.

Granted the lower court Judge is partly responsible for this mess because he / she doesn't know his law but its the hospitals lawyers that decided to go this route and now they are paying for it. They tried an illegal legal maneuver and got slapped for it. 

Yep, look how terribly people without insurance get treated! They get over 1.5 million dollars of care, free lawyers to keep them in the hospital and a $30,000 plan ride home!

LoL Yep, that's how all illegals get treated all the time, didn't ya know!?  It's not like this is an atypical case or anything . . .

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

flag@whitehouose.gov, eh?

Wonder what kind of fun stuff we can send 'em?

[Boomhauer]

flag@whitehouose.gov, eh?

Wonder what kind of fun stuff we can send 'em?

Be my guest. I'm going and entering it at a bunch of porn sites tonight.

[Jamisjockey]

Seenterman,
My sympathy went away when the man broke the law and entered the US illegally. 

[longeyes]

Illegal aliens have turned the health care issue into theater of the absurd.

We are now supposed to destroy our system and bankrupt ourselves to give health care to people who break our laws coming here?

When does "humane" morph into insane?

[sanglant]

when the LSD dropin' hippies started running the country

[makattak]

You missed the entire point. The hospital didn't discharge him to Guatemala, their hospital isn't located in Guatemala. They deported him.

No, you missed the entire point. I used that as an example that they were unable to discharge this man without a court order.

That they were subsequently sued AFTER discharging him following the court order (after THREE YEARS of care) was immaterial to my point.

My point was that he was getting free care and the hospital was REQUIRED by federal law to provide it. The case which the hospital eventually won was simply more egregious. My problem was that he received care for three years and the hospital just had to eat it.

Wonder why those who CAN pay see increasing costs...

[roo_ster]

Check out the latest tactics from the Dems as reported via video by drudgereport.com:

SEE THEM SCREAM:

Crowd mocks lawmakers over Obama health plan in Arkansas...

VIDEO: Sen. Boxer: 'Well-dressed' protesters at Town Halls are out to 'hurt our president'...

Pelosi: Town Hall Protesters Are 'Carrying Swastikas'... Republican leader attacks 'fishy' White House request...

Boxer bloviates about taking on a mob, Pelosi likening her opponents to Nazis, the DNC's new ad accusing anyone opposed to BHO's health care disaster a mindless drone.

We are getting to them.  We need now to make them fear us.

[longeyes]

They already fear us.  They already fear (and hate) liberty.

But tyrants always, inevitably go back to what has worked in the past, and we'd best be prepared for that.

[slingshot]

They deported him.

They just sent him home.  I think the hospital should ask for some documentation that they are in the country legally.  I would produce the same documentation.  If they are illegal or don't have acceptable insurance, point them to the door unless they or their family can produce the money.  Maybe they wouldn't come in the first place.  As far as the one room shack... that's how poor people or common people live there.  Talk to the Guatamala govenment about improving their lot in life.  That is just not the US's fault.