January 2008

California's Aliens To Get Translators

merica's committment to multiculturalism and mass immigration will soon drive up the already escalating costs of heath insurance and shut out American workers from good-paying jobs.

Four years ago, the California legislature decided that medical insurance companies must provide non-English speaking alien customers with printed materials in their native languages as well as translators when they visit doctors or hospitals. Lawmakers set a deadline of mid-2008 for insurers to submit compliance plans.

That means health care costs will skyrocket as medical insurance companies race to meet the deadline and hire intrepreters and translators.

"They will be diverting millions of dollars from health care into cultural issues," warned Phil Kent, spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control. "Consequently, the cost of health insurance premiums will go up just to make sure that immigrants, some of them illegal aliens, will get medical service in the language of their choice. That's a bitter pill to swallow."

Blue Cross of California admitted to the Los Angeles Times last month that it is being forced to spend $20 million to meet the new alien-friendly regulations.

According to the new state law, so-called "limited English" patients must receive medical documents, including bills and medication forms, in their native language. Printed materials defined as "non-vital," such as promotional or sales fliers, may be issued in English, but must be translated within 21 days if an immigrant patient asks for such a service.

State officials said each insurance provider's language translation services will vary in cost and size, but all plans must include a demographic profile of their membership, a list of what services will be offered to non-English speaking customers, and a system for training staffers on how to handle phone calls in different languages.

"That means workers who speak only English won't be able to find work at these insurance companies as they race to recruit bilingual employees, perhaps immigrants," said Kent. "Other English-speaking workers might not be promoted or will be transferred to other jobs. That amounts to blatant discrimination against American workers in their own homeland," he said.

The most expensive part of the multiculturalist plan requires insurance companies to provide interpreters during doctor visits. That is regarded as a "right" by political action groups working to transform the U.S. into a multicultural society.

"It helps cover a large portion of limited English speakers who have jobs and have insurance, but don't know their rights to better services," said Ellen Wu, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, an immigrant advocacy organization.

Health officials told the L.A. Times that no serious problems have actually occurred in the absence of laws mandating translation services. The law is designed simply to make aliens feel more comfortable. "The problems [from language differences] generally result in stressful, embarrassing, confusing moments that come at times when people are already at their least comfortable," the Times reported.

Marbella Sala, operations manager at UC Davis' Center for Reducing Health Disparities, claimed that immigrants encounter difficulties unless Americans help them. She told the Times about one case in which a Chinese-speaking patient was rushed to the hospital because she mistakenly put hemorrhoid ointment in her eye. In another case, a Spanish-speaking patient whose husband served as interpreter during a medical visit believed she had contracted a venereal disease from a toilet seat. The Times did not explain why those problems were serious enough to warrant requiring across the board translation services.

Kent said the law doesn't really solve any serious problems, and simply accelerates the de-Americanization caused by mass immigration.

"It relieves legitimate immigrants of the need to learn to speak English while promoting bilingualism," he said. "But the worst immediate aspect of the new law is the cost it will impose on the rest of us. Middle Americans will be paying a pretty penny in rising health insurance costs."

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