Oct 26, 2006 10:22 pm US/Central
Parkland Hospital Billing Foreign Countries
by Jack Fink
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
For years now, Dallas County taxpayers have paid for hundreds of millions of dollars in care for non-U.S. citizens. This past summer, Dallas County leaders proposed asking foreign countries to pay Parkland Hospital back.
The latest figures show that the county would bill Mexico nearly $750,000, El Salvador more than $43,000, Peru nearly $35,000, and that's just a start.
According to the county, those totals are just for July through December of last year. Many more patients were not even included in those figures.
"It has been our intent," said Judge Margaret Keliher, "and the court has requested that we go on and send these bills to all foreign countries to reimburse Dallas County taxpayers."
Judge Keliher said that the county is now drawing up those letters, and commissioners could act "within the next few weeks."
This plan does not just apply to foreign countries. Parkland officials say that residents from other nearby counties received more than $21 million worth of care last year alone. The hospital sent bills to those counties as well, but so far, they have not received a dime.
Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican Consul General in Dallas, says that the plan is not realistic and not fair at all. He says that, despite their legal status, Mexican citizens living in Dallas pay their taxes.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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