Speech #1010232301

Florida. and California are at the financial breaking point. The situation in the southern part of my State of California is troubling. In Los Angeleswhich has the Nations biggest undocumented alien population10 of the countys 23 trauma centers originally in the county network when it was established in 1983 have shut their doors. In San Diego. the six county trauma centers are threatened by losses of over $9 million a year. Similar situations exist in Texas. Arizona. and New Mexico. as well as Florida. It may well be that any State which has trauma centers serving a significant number of undocumented persons have. or shortly will have. the same problem. These truma centers are struggling through no fault of their own but through the fault of the Federal Governments inability to control the Nations borders. Mr. President. if our Nations trauma centers along the border are to survive. they need direct. immediate financial relief. I have offered legislationthe Trauma Care Alien Compensation Act of 1990to provide critically needed financial assistance to truma centers treating a disproportionate number of undocumented aliens. The special circumstances of border trauma care facilities are acknowledged by the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources in its report on S. 15. I would like to quote for the RECORD the relevant committee report language: The committee recognizes that many trauma centers located in counties that border Mexico face and additional financial challengedcaring for undocumented trauma victims. Many trauma centers in the border counties of Texas. Arizona. New Mexico and California. as well as Florida. are experiencing serious financial losses because of large numbers of undocumented persons needing trauma care. The burden of such uncompensated losses poses a threat to the economic viability of border area trauma centers. Therefore. to help ensure that the critical care provided by border area trauma care centers continues. the committee recommends that the States involved give full consideration to these unique problems in making determinations for reimbursement for uncompensated trauma care under section 5(a) of the bill.