DRUG-WAR VICTIMS: FEDS SHOULD PAY NON-CITIZENS' BILLS

El Paso County is again asking for federal assistance when University
Medical Center is forced, by law, to treat non-citizens victimized in
the Juarez drug war.

We are owed the help. And this time, unlike the last, the request
should not fall on deaf ears in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps our congressman, Silvestre Reyes, can help. With all the
stimulus money pouring out of Washington, surely Reyes could have
some directed to this purpose.

Bills, being picked up by El Pasoans, are accruing. The latest count
shows 23 shooting victims costing $139,000, of which only $15,000 has
been paid. Last year, the hospital treated 50 victims at a cost of
around $1.4 million.

The law says the hospital must treat any person who shows up on its doorstep.

In most cases, the gunshot victims have held U.S. citizenship. The
question is, why must El Paso taxpayers pay for what becomes indigent
care when non-citizens are brought across an international bridge and
taken to UMC?

County Commissioner Veronica Escobar says, "I anticipate it (drug
war) will probably go on for a very long time. If this will be the
status quo for our community, we need more federal aid. If we don't
get that funding, the burden falls on the back of the local property taxpayer."

And there are no signs that this bloody war to rule the Juarez drug
trade is abating. July had an all-time record number of murders in
Juarez, 248. There were 25 killings in the first three days of this
month. Last year, more than Advertisement 1,600 were murdered. So far
this year the count surpasses 1,000.

UMC had been noted for huge indigent-care bills over the years, it
being the county facility. In recent years, the hospital
administration has made great strides in checking backgrounds of
patients to determine if they had the means to pay their bill, or
not. If a patient drives up in a Cadillac, as one example is given,
it is usually determined he or she can pay -- and the hospital
vigorously goes after its due, according to CEO Jim Valenti.

But getting payment out of non-citizens shot amid flurries of
drug-war bullets is often-times impossible.

This is a drug war being fought on foreign soil with victims being
treated on U.S. soil. Hospital bills for non-citizens should be
picked up by the federal government, not the taxpayers in only one
U.S. county -- ours.

Here's hoping this second try at federal reimbursement doesn't again
fall on deaf ears.