I am beyond disappointed in my home state

[mickeym]

Arizona May Require Hospitals to Check Citizenship

PHOENIX – Republican lawmakers want to widen Arizona's illegal immigration crackdown with a proposal to require hospitals to check on whether patients are in the country legally, causing outrage among medical professionals who fear becoming de facto immigration agents under the law.

The medical industry ripped the bill Monday as it was scheduled for a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Doctors envisioned scenarios in which immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis would stay home from the clinic or hospital and put themselves and the public at a grave health risk.

Rest of the article here.


I will not disagree that we need to get a handle on illegal immigrants; that it is a problem. But because Arizona is a border state, it's not rocket science to figure out who's going to bear the brunt of the scrutiny. Requiring hospitals to check someone's citizenship is going to end up encouraging racial profiling, period.

Comments

[ms-nerd.livejournal.com]

I'll bet you 100 bucks that if my white, Canadian self went to a hospital in Arizona, they would not ask at all.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

I guarantee you're right about that. Nor likely anyone else who's white. But any person of color is going to be asked. Guarantee it. UGH.

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

That idea is both stupid as well as illegal.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Definitely stupid, and if it's NOT illegal, it damn sure should be.

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

I would be quite suprized if established laws about doctor/patient confidentiality allowed for disclosure of info like that. Especially because any attack on that confidentiality would be bolstered by the federal HIPPA legislation that's been on the books the last 10 years and is jealously defended at the national level. HIPPA basically says that unless the patient or client gives legal written permission, disclosing personal info is a punishable offense.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting point to bring up. Because HIPPA applies to anything to do with healthcare, right? Hospitals, labs, etc.

Hmm. Something to think about.

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

And it's a VERY well defended piece of legislation. NOBODY fucks with HIPPA.

[tabularassa.livejournal.com]

Such ugliness. Why do people have to be so ugly on the inside:(

[zillahseye.livejournal.com]

Ugh, what a clusterfuck. To keep it from becoming a legal issue for their staff, I can see hospitals being less willing to treat emergency patients whose immigration status they may question--like, say, my mom's work friend, who prefers to speak Hmong when she's with family (or when in a panic) but who's been a citizen since she was six. I mean...it's a hospital. Should that actually be the first thing a doctor is thinking about? Should they think next whether they're treating a drug dealer or a drunk driver or someone who got hurt in a police chase? That's breaking the law too!