Denver healthcare is nearly broke with the migrant influx as they support $130 million in uncompensated healthcare.
The University of Colorado Hospital warned it is unsustainable. They provided $10 million in uncompensated care in THREE MONTHS!
Illegal immigration is unsustainable. The federal taxpayer can’t afford to pay for it. The federal government is bankrupt.
About 8,000 illegal immigrants recorded about 20,000 visits to Denver Health last year, receiving services such as emergency room treatment, primary care, dental care, and childbirth.
Citizens have to pay for their care and for the care of illegal aliens.
A top doctor in Denver has told Fox News the illegal migrant crisis has pushed the state’s hospital system to its breaking point and is causing a humanitarian crisis.
Denver Health Chief of Government Affairs, Dr. Steve Federico, said the influx of migrants is putting an enormous strain on hospitals and staff and called for federal aid to bail it out.
“We absolutely need additional public support to help provide health care to our safety net hospitals such as Denver Health,” Federico told “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday. “We’re needing to respond to this huge humanitarian crisis in our emergency rooms and our clinics. And, so, what we’re looking for is for policymakers to step up and fund appropriately the health care providers that are providing this care.”
The problem is the federal government doesn’t have any money either. And why should we pay for Denver leftists’ insane policies? Make illegal aliens pay for dental, get a midwife for birth, and skip primary care. Better yet, tell them to go home. Mexico has universal care – send them to Mexico. The long-term solution is to send them home.
THEY STEP UP
“As a pediatrician, I’ll tell you what my colleagues see every day. They see human beings coming in asking for health care, and I’m proud to say that our hospital and our health care team continue to step up and help these human beings in their times of need,” Federico said.
They step up and get their salaries, but layoffs will come.
“My health care partners and colleagues are experiencing a lot of moral strife, staying up at night after they care for these patients, wondering if they’ll be able to get the needed medications that have been prescribed or the follow-up care that they’ll need in subsequent days or weeks. We need a better system to help these people get on their feet and to be safe and healthy,” Federico told “The Ingraham Angle.”
We don’t have money to care for the world, Doctor. Give your services for free. That’s a solution.
The only thing that saves this country is to close the borders and send criminals, terrorists, and welfare slaves home.
EMAIL FROM DENVER HEALTHCARE TO BECKER’S HOSPITAL REVIEW
Denver Health “is at a critical, critical point,” according to its CEO, Donna Lynne, DrPH.
The health system is overwhelmed with care costs for uninsured patients, particularly migrants — 36,000 of whom have arrived in Denver since December 2022, according to The Denver Post.
“Where do you think the migrants are getting care? They are getting care at Denver Health,” Dr. Lynne said at a Jan. 9 finance and governance committee meeting. Her remarks were reported by CBS Colorado on Jan. 12.
“While I have tremendous compassion for what’s going on, it’s heartbreaking,” Dr. Lynne continued. “It’s going to break Denver Health in a way that we didn’t even anticipate.”
Denver Health has treated more than 8,000 migrants who lack legal documentation in the past year, totaling about 20,000 visits, according to Steven Federico, MD, a pediatrician at the health system.
The majority of these patients are coming from Venezuela and arrive needing treatment for chronic and communicable diseases after making the difficult journey.
Eric Lavonas, MD, an emergency physician at Denver Health, expects the situation to worsen as subzero temperatures sweep across Colorado, exposing unhoused, uninsured populations to frostbite and hypothermia.
In 2020, the health system had about $60 million in uncompensated care costs. Last year, costs sprung to $136 million, a quarter of which came from caring for non-Denver residents.
Due to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, Denver Health cannot turn patients away from the emergency room and has resorted to other cost-cutting measures. The system closed 15 of its 78 inpatient beds for substance misuse and mental health treatment and did away with planned salary increases.
Denver Health lost $35 million in 2022, and 2023 could have been worse had the system not received some outside help, according to the Post. The state, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and private donors infused a collective $20 million into the health system, which ended the year with $2 million in the red. It was the first year that Denver Health received some state funding outside of Medicaid.
“I suspect that no other hospital in the state of Colorado can say that [they have cared for so many migrants], and there has been no reimbursement for that, and quite frankly, it is an ongoing conversation with the city, with the state, and with the federal government,” Dr. Lynne said.
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