Free Bird asked:


Immigration poses challenges for the health care system, which often can’t get compensated for cost of care. A 2003 Florida Hospital Association survey of 39 hospitals found the medical centers gave away $40.2 million in charity care for illegal immigrants. That didn’t take into account the noncitizens who are here legally but who are uninsured and underemployed and are likely to land in emergency rooms The United States has about 36 million immigrants, a third of whom are estimated to be here illegally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. How to pay for their medical care is part of a broader debate on immigration policy and on what to do about the country’s out-of-control health care costs.In many ways, the immigrants’ stories are no different than those of uninsured citizens, who have medical doors shut on them and debt collectors chasing for impossible-to-pay medical bills when they get care. But the challenges of being a noncitizen and uninsured—and the challenges of caring for them—are even greater than they are for uninsured Americans.
Immigrants are flooding delivery rooms to give birth to children, who are automatically U.S. citizens. In 2005 and 2006 alone, Lee County saw a total of about 2,100 babies born to illegal-immigrant mothers, state birth records show.
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2008/01/its_tricky_to_t.php

Taking Fioricet