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Round-Up: Public Health

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[posted by Mike Murray]

* Joliet-area chemical release is investigated by federal inspectors

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has dispatched a four-member team to investigate why a toxic chemical was released from an oil refinery last week near Joliet.

Two employees — one of them in critical condition — were taken to a local hospital in Thursday’s incident. Their conditions Monday were not available.

A propane leak resulted in the hydrogen fluoride release at the ExxonMobil plant in Channahon, according to a safety board news release. The unit’s water deluge system, which is designed to contain airborne hydrogen fluoride, was activated and the alkylation unit was shut down.

Will County Emergency Management Agency Director Harold Damron said there was no cause for alarm outside the building, “based on everything we know.”

* Illegal immigrants face life-and-death decisions without health insurance

Under current federal laws, illegal immigrants are entitled to receive only emergency health care, though Illinois and some other states offer assistance to cover uninsured children. In Cook County, some immigrants might access a “limit of liability” program providing temporary financial aid to low-income uninsured patients.

Some undocumented patients have resorted to using stolen Social Security numbers bought on the black market to qualify for health programs — a form of medical identity theft increasingly on hospital radars.[…]

Hospitals nationwide have grappled with how to deal with indigent patients without legal status. In Chicago and elsewhere, some private facilities have arranged to have undocumented patients flown back to their own country, a practice that resulted in a landmark lawsuit in Florida last year on behalf of a Guatemalan man who suffered severe brain injuries from a car crash.

Last month, a Florida jury found that the hospital was within its rights to have Luis Alberto Jimenez repatriated.

* Fear failure, not health care reform [Jessie Jackson Op-ED]

* ‘What’s in this for me?’

posted by Mike Murray
Tuesday, Aug 11, 09 @ 10:51 am

Comments

  1. Repatriating the illegals sounds like a good plan. They will get whatever level of health care the place where they are from provides.

    Comment by krome Tuesday, Aug 11, 09 @ 10:59 am

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