Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: health care in California

hello,

I have a wierd question but I know someone people here live in California.

I was wondering what the government covers, if you are an American and a resident of Cal, if you get hospitalized and require surgery. Will they pay for some of it / none of it / all of it?

I heard Cal had some sort of gov't health care, I'm very curious.

thanks
sorry for being so OT

Ravi

I've never heard of such a thing, but then again, I haven't needed it so far. [knock on wood]

Perhaps you mean Medi-Cal?

"The California Medicaid program. A federally aided, state operated and administrated program that provides medical benefits for certain low-income persons in need of health and medical care. Subject to broad federal guidelines, California determines the benefits covered, program eligibility, rates of payment for providers, and methods of administrating the program."

If you are an American, you don't qualify for it.

You'de have to give up yor citizenship, leave the country, and then sneak back in the undercarraige of an old no brakes 18 wheeler. Once you have achieved 100% illegal immigrant status, you get full coverage of the medical bills. On your way out of the hospital, they will give you a shower, a new car, a new suit, and the business card of some immigration lawyer in San Diego that will be able to sue the Federal Government for causing that cut you got on your arm while you were hiding under that truck on the way back into the country. By the time you are done, a full compliment of servants will be bringing the food to your table when you invite Michael Moore to dinner in your new ocean side beach house in La Jolla.



Ok... so I exagerated a little. The car is used...

did i really just read that?

Medi-Cal covers lots of kids in California. Lots of them are the children of illegal immigrants, but what are you gonna do? If they're not going to enforce the border laws there is no realistic (politically viable) choice but to help take care of these kids.

Illegal immigration in California has been a disaster from what I have witnessed in my lifetime. Why has it been allowed to continue? Business profits from the 3rd world labor, gov't gets lots of new customers for services and jails, liberals get the warm fuzzies, and existing minorities feel more at home.

On the down side, the economy fails to evolove as capitalists exploit cheap unskilled labor rather than investing in higher tech enterprises, labor market is flooded and wages depressed, social services are overwhelmed, crime and blight flourish, and taxes on legal workers and homeowners go up to pay for it all.

Working class gets the short end of the stick again.

In reply to:

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...liberals get the warm fuzzies...

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I consider myself quite liberal and I have very strong feelings about immigration.

1) Legally becoming a citizen or legal resident in the US needs to become easier. Once again, if you've got plenty of money it's easy. You just hire a lawyer, and bam...you've got all the papers you need - and quickly. If you're broke, then you're pretty much out of luck. A large part of the reason so many people in the US are illegal immigrants is because of the incredible amount of red tape, and legal hoops the average person needs to go through to become legal.

2) Having said that, if you're not legal, you don't belong here. Giving drivers licenses to people that you know are illegal? Who's the genius that came up with that idea? If you know someone is illegally here, give them 30 days to show proof of legal status (or at least proof that the process is underway) and then kick them out.

3) That crap about how illegals do the jobs that no one else wants to do is complete BS. I grew up in Maine. Immigrants are few and far between. Guess who works at the carwash, in the kitchen at McDonalds, etc...high school students - kids. They get their feet wet in the job world. Most of the legal (read: white) kids I've seen and talked with out here in LA think it's beneath them to have a jobs like that. That's BS.

4) Border patrols - Give these people the resources they need! We've got a HUGE border. If someone is sneaking across, clearly they're not intending to become legal residents.

5) Crack down on small (and large) businesses that hire illegal immigrants. These businesses have to stop taking advantage of illegals. Paying them FAR less than they would a legal person, and on top of that paying them under the table so no taxes are paid. They not only do it because it's cheaper, they do it because going through the right channels involves a ton of paperwork and headaches to hire an immigrant. I've known many friends who are here with student visas, or have green cards. Many employers don't want to have to deal with it, so they don't hire them.

It all goes back to how hard it is to actually do it the right way. INS needs to be completely reformed. Simplify the process. Do a background check on people entering (which that alone I know is another whole can of worms), keep out known criminals, etc...the rest of them, issue them a SS card, and tell them to get to work and start contributing. The vast majority of immigrants coming to American do in fact want to contribute. Nobody wants to feel or be treated like a 2nd class. If you're going to treat them like 2nd class people by only paying them 1/2 a wage, only hiring them for meanial jobs, etc...why should they become legal?

a lot of them come here,live 4 or 5 to a room ,work there asses off for a few years send the cash home and live comfortably when they leave.ive seen it done many times...........btw back to health care....i pay 843 dollars a month for health benefits and that doesnt include dental or eyes......that sucks.....ron

Hey, spiff, you got it right for once! LOL, JK, etc...

I agree completely, except it may not be wise to let in TOO many unskilled laborers.

My PPO was going to cost us $800+ a month (after employer contributions) this year so we scrapped it. It was $300+ last year. HMO is going to be about $50.

First off, my post was TOTALLY tounge in cheek. I'm sorry I kicked off yet another political discussion. There ARE days where the news reports make it sound like the system works like that, aren't there?

I'm kinda glad I did though. Spiff just saved me a ton of time typing up that reply. I concure with everything he said. It looks like we finally agree on something.