Reply #27: Here's some info that lends perspective to your concern-

[Rose Siding]

It addresses the straw man that scapegoats undocumented workers for the sorry state we've made of our healthcare system-

snip>
MICHAEL SAYS: 1. The place increasingly difficult demands on an already overloaded medical system and inability to pay exacerbated by showing up for treatment at emergency rooms where they cannot be refused.

ALISA SAYS: My dear Michael: By far the biggest strain on our healthcare system is the 45 million uninsured American citizens who are far more likely than any undocumented immigrant to seek the free treatment you describe here. Now, before you say, “yeah, but they’re 'murkin citizens,” consider that many of them are too poor to pay taxes. So your taxes are going to pay for their free health care. This crisis has been created by our being the only Industrialized Western Democracy on EARTH without universal health care. If your concern is truly about taxpayer money being spent to pay for other people’s healthcare, you should address this problem honestly and with the correct facts.

For the record, 45 million is a number larger than the entire elderly population of this nation, larger than the entire African American population of this nation, larger than the entire LEGAL Latino population of this nation and larger than the entire country of Canada, and more than four times the entire population of Greece.

The number of American citizens without healthcare has SOARED under President Bush. The number of uninsured Americans has GROWN by 5.2 million since 2000. Most of these people are non-Hispanic, poor whites. In fact, under our current president we have witnessed the single largest increase in poverty among white Americans IN HISTORY. Could it be that you leaders would like to distract you from this and other shocking facts about their lack of leadship? Could it be that scapegoating “illegals” is a convenient way to draw the attention of concerned Americans like you from the real issues that face us all?

Finally, I will leave you with the key finding of a report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities regarding healthcare coverage in our nation for 2004, the most recent year for which data is available: The percentage of native citizens who were uninsured rose in 2004, while the percentage of non-citizen immigrants who lacked coverage fell.

I appreciate your alarm, but as you can see it is being misdirected by a sophisticated propaganda machine whose main puppets are Fox News, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. The facts do not support your concerns.

http://alisavaldesrodriguez.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-stupidity-in-my-in-box.html