San Diego County Won’t Pay for Care of Illegal Residents

The financially strapped Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to stop paying emergency medical care bills for illegal immigrants, saying that the money it saves will go to providing health services for the county’s working poor who are legal residents. Illegal immigrants will continue to receive emergency care at UC San Diego Medical Center, which has a contract with the county, but the annual cost of $5.2 million will be paid by the university.

County and UC officials said the shift of responsibility results from the federal government’s refusal to assist counties that are forced to provide millions of dollars in services to immigrants who enter this country illegally through a porous border.

“The biggest deadbeat dad in the country is the federal government,” Chairman Brian Bilbray said. “They’ve just walked away from the illegal immigration problem. We’re tired of supporting the federal kid.”

Roberto Martinez, director of the local office of the Quaker church’s American Friends Service Committee, said the county’s move is mean-spirited and that he is worried that it could lead to denying medical care to illegal immigrants.

“Our feeling is that health care, housing and education are basic human rights and should not be denied to anyone,” Martinez said.

The county plans to spend the $5.2 million on long-term care for the working poor, legal residents who have chronic health problems and are medically indigent.

About 27,000 people are served by the county because they are not eligible for Medi-Cal and cannot afford private health insurance. Hit by the recession and reductions in state aid, the program for the medically indigent had been slated for cutbacks before Tuesday’s vote.

“It’s very simple,” Bilbray said. “If there isn’t enough money to go around, those who are here legally and work should get the first shot.

“We’re talking about a whole class of people who were going to be sacrificed to provide more for the illegal aliens. We were about to turn off insulin treatments for a working mother with two kids because the emergency care for illegals was bleeding us dry.”

UC San Diego Medical Center will be in the same fiscal boat as other San Diego County hospitals: required by state law to treat all emergency cases while facing an increasing medical and financial burden from illegal immigrants.

Dr. Melvin Ochs, an official with the county Department of Health Services, said he hopes the federal government will finally realize the burden inflicted on border communities such as San Diego by uncontrolled illegal immigration. He said he doubts that the government understands how local hospitals are underwriting millions of dollars of care for illegal immigrants.

Encouraged by recent comments by President Clinton, the county government is tabulating a bill to present to the federal government for the cost of providing myriad services to illegal immigrants. Included in the tab will be the cost to local hospitals of uncollectible bills.

Unlike most California counties, San Diego does not operate a county hospital. Since 1981 the county has paid the UC San Diego Medical Center to provide emergency care for the poor, regardless of immigration status.

Last year the county paid $10.8 million for emergency care at the medical center for about 19,000 people, nearly half of whom were illegal immigrants. The 10-year contract approved Tuesday will pay only for legal residents.

University officials said the cost of providing care for undocumented immigrants without reimbursement will push the hospital into a deficit for the first time in its history. About $3.3 million in red ink is expected this fiscal year.