Comments about ‘Diverse Salt Lake population provides much-needed interpretation services at hospitals, clinics’

"Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, any agency that accepts federal funding is required to provide access to language options to all customers. Title VI of the act was amended in 2001 to include medical facilities."

Let's see...civil rights in the English-speaking U.S. includes providing foreign language assistance in medical facilities? What twisted group of bureaucrats came up with that one?! Would Russia or France or Germany or Lithuania or Japan legislate the same for you and me? I think not!

This shows you the power of the Hispanic lobby in this country. Frightening.

Guess who PAYS FOR THIS in the medical arena? It's YOU and ME!!!!! It's certainly not the immigrant or illegal alien. Paid interpreters are expensive. The private medical office I used to work in had to hire interpreters to facilitate treatment for patients who weren't going to pay the doctor anyway.

Another example of the "rich" paying their FAIR share, isn't it. He quit practice early along with a lot of his fellow physicians who couldn't "afford" to be affiliated with and subject to the horrendous regulations and strangleholds placed on medicine by the federal government.

"...needed interpretation services, which are free to patients, both the MountainStar and Intermountain network hospitals contract with outside interpretation agencies..."

Free to patients? Perhaps., perhaps not. If these patients are taxpayers or other paying customers, then they are not free to them. They just don't get any option to pay - or not. The ONLY people to whom these services are free are non taxpaying folks, or those that do not pay their medical bills at all.

Make no mistake, requiring these services from anyone, the business must pass along these costs to someone. It's either that of ultimately fail as a business.

This in Utah, where English is the state language, no less!

Being able so speak many languages not only makes Utah more competitive in international trade it also provides much needed intelligence in support of national defense (300th Military Intelligence Brigade[Linguist], new NSA facility at Camp Williams). I'm extra proud that we are also able to host people from all nations (2002 Olympics).

In review:

1. Earn more money.
2. Stay more secure.
3. Be more friendly.

Win. Win. Win.

One time I had an elderly Tuamotuan friend that had a lower esophogaus pain. He told me that the spirits of his island were biting him because they wanted him to return to Tahiti.

I took him to the hospital and I interpreted into Tahitian. The doctor asked me, "Where is he from?" "From Vahitahi." The doctor said he had never heard of the place. "Yes, it is a really small island."

The doctor asked me what was wrong with my friend. I said that he had esphogael pain. But I wished to this day that I had said, "The spirits from his island are biting him. He says that it is because they want him to go back to Tahiti. But I think that they are biting him because they think that
he needs to be taking his medicine regularly."

I think that Title IX was dreamed up by politicians who were ignorant of diversity. There are so many languages, not just the four or five big ones. If someone comes in who speaks Kosraean are they being discriminated because there isn't an interpreter?