Comments about ‘Utah Legislature: Medicaid advocates speaking up’

I have a great idea,lets stop paying for illegal aliens health care,it is an injustice to give illegals health care and deny it to American citizens,this is a travesty.I for one am sick of my taxes going to pay for illegal aliens care.

Lets be clear which illegal aliens are getting health care for free. Show us an example and tell us what branch of government is doing that what program? words are just that words let see facts?

Not only is it pathetic to cut these kinds of benefits, but Medicaid is one of those programs with matching federal dollars. We get $3.00 for every dollar we spend, last year it was $4.00 yet the stingy and ignorant legislature continues to make outrageous and immoral cuts to assist the most vulnerable and fragile members of our community; the elderly and children.

So you counter hyperbole with hyperbole? Yep, convincing anti-argument.

Go to IMC emergency room on any weekend and you will see the long line of illegals seeking, and getting, medical care. No english, no address or phone number and they are admitted. I watched this last week while I waited there. At least twenty-five to thirty cases in the morning were admitted.

I comment in many of these threads, and won't mix words here. This is the most pathetic idea that I've ever seen presented. I teach in an environment in which most kids are severely handicapped. Without medicaid, their futures are hopeless. Virtually everything from their bus rides to school, wheelchairs, physical therapy, occupational therapy and other healthcare are either fully or partially funded by medicaid. If I am understanding this article accurately, it's arguably a death sentance to at least hundreds of children and their families in the valley.

I agree with lynne, we need to stop paying for health care/insurance for illegal immigrants and spend that money on legal US citizens who have paid for and deserve it. Too much time and money are being spent on those who should not be receiving it and it's time that the USA start focusing on it's own people - legal US citizens.

I know there's a problem with the budget but please don't cut funding for health care for the poor, this is an instance where many of these type of people will literally die if these cuts are made. Let's restore the progressive income tax (back to 7% where it was before the flat tax) on incomes above a certain level, increase the tobacco tax and impose higher user fees for various state services. If we are really Christian in our attitudes these are the kind of things we should be doing, not cutting Medicaid for the poor.

You know, I know the idea of raising taxes is unpopular (in a culture where having half a dozen kids but refusing to pay for their education is so very popular) but some people really do need help.

If Gov. Herbert thinks that not raising taxes is more important than the lives and well being of the people in this state then he's an idiot - and so are those who choose to vote for him!

Small government is a great idea - but this is really, really small of you!

I'm truly sorry for this lady's son's experience and how hard it must have been on the family, but since there is a law in the US that a hospital MUST treat you when you enter whether you have insurance or not, whether you have cash or not, and whether you are a citizen or not, it's simply not true that this young man "wouldn't have been put back together without Medicaid." I would like to see some gratitude for the doctors who performed that miracle, instead of her implying that without Medicaid they would have just quickly cut off the leg and/or just let him die. I also wouldn't mind seeing some gratitude for the innovation that made that kind of saving medicine possible - innovation made possible over the last 100 years or so by capitalism. And, no, it is not "Christian" to require citizens to pay taxes to support Medicaid whether they want to or not, under threat of imprisonment, whether it works well or not - true charity is voluntarily done through churches, families, nonprofits, etc., which do the job better anyways because they're actually accountable for the result.

As a local doctor, I encourage any Utahn to go to the nearest ER waiting room. The illegal immigrants who show up without insurance, means to pay or personal identification will receive health care "free" to them, but "paid" by you, the taxpayer. This has nothing to do with "hatred" or "racism". This has everything to do with limited resources. Illegal immigration is the leading cause of problems for health care in Utah.

Hospital is NOT required to treat you. The emergency room IS required to accept you, than they stabalize and sent you on your way (what ever that means in every case).

I think the legislator that would propose cuts to medicaid needs to spend some time with the folks who are dependent on it. I've had that opportunity for the past couple of years - and it is a real eye opener. To cut these programs is to put a death sentence on many people that are desperately trying to live & giving all they have to that effort. I cannot see anyone with a ounce of compassion for others proposing such a cut.

I lived in San Diego for several years.

There, women from Mexico often come across the border illegally and have their babies in California, where they get the delivery, hospital stay and medication for free. The mothers then return to Mexico after giving birth, but since the child has a U.S. birth certificate, the child is a U.S. citizen for life, with all the benefits.

Many other people, I'm sure, are aware of this practice. The problem with it is that some Americans go without healthcare they need while these illegals are getting excellent healthcare by playing the system.

Free medical care in our emergency rooms is one of the incentives for illegal immigration.

Why are we forced to pay for others' medical care in the first place? To all those who have already posted advocating that the government take from everyone to give to a few, you need to start donating to charitable organizations. If there are really that many of you in favor of giving to people who can't afford their own health care, they should have as much funds as they need. If not, this is just another example of taking money from the majority at the behest of the minority.

Medicaid didn't save Bridger, the doctors who helped him did.

Does anyone know if anyone attempted to raise money to pay for young Bridger's medical bills? Shouldn't government aid be a very last resort? Surely people who sympathized with his predicament would have donated large sums of money to help him, just as they're doing know for the Haitians.

Mrs. Shaw related her story so eloquently. No one expects a life changing accident to put them in such a position. I admire the young man for his courage and cheerfulness. Why should a young man settle for an amputation? I hope this program continues.

To Anonymous at 2:43p.m.
"Does anyone know if anyone attempted to raise money to pay for young Bridger's medical bills?
It would take a lot of change jars placed around town to raise the millions it took to mend him! Do you really think that yard sales, car washes and change jars would raise that much money? Change jars are NOT a health care system.
Don't cut medicaid for these folks. They would only be stabilized and sent on their way with no care without these programs.

Because I'm American, I have a right to free Health Care!!!