Washingtontimes.com
Mexican ambulance drivers are transporting hospital patients unable to pay for medical care or emergency-room services in their country to facilities in the United States, where their treatment is mandated by federal law, authorities said yesterday.
The border crossings have been reported from Brownsville, Texas, to Douglas, Ariz., and involve Mexican ambulance companies whose drivers have been instructed by hospital officials in Mexico to take ailing and uninsured patients to the United States, the authorities said.
The patients are being transported through the U.S.-Mexico border's many unguarded crossings when hospitals along the border are reporting losses of more than $200 million in unreimbursed costs for treating illegal aliens, and the numbers continue to rise.
"It's a phenomenon we noticed some time ago, one that has expanded very rapidly," said a federal law-enforcement official familiar with the problem. "Hospitals in Mexico are pointing the ambulances north when they discover a patient can't pay for services and has no insurance. They know they can get treatment in this country."
Posted by Suzanne at December 12, 2002