An article in yesterdays Los Angeles Times describes three instances in which immigrants, each from different countries were unable to communicate with medical staff at local hospitals because they did not know how to speak, write or understand English.
Federal law requires that healthcare providers who receive federal funding offer language assistance to patients if needed.
Because federal law also requires that emergency services be available to patients regardless of immigration status or ability to pay, most hospitals and healthcare providers depend on the federal subsidies to offset a portion of the loss.
Consequently they are forced to provide a language translator.
Government mandated programs and services are passing these costs on to tax payers.
According to a recent study by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, one in three Los Angeles County residents do not speak English.
The most common languages spoken are Spanish, Chinese, Tagalof, Korean, Armenian, Vietnamese, Persian, Japanese and Russian.
In a recent study by the Journal of Internal Medicine, 1 in 15 or about 20 million people nationwide have no or limited English speaking and writing skills.
In order to comply with federal laws, healthcare providers and legal service agencies rely on dozens of non-profit organizations, funded by the federal government, who offer language translation services contracts.
According to the National Language Services Network the number of those who speak a language other than English in their home is staggering.
46 million people or 17% of the entire US population are either non English speaking or have limited English skills.
Lian Zhen Li, one of the patients unable to communicate with doctors interviewed for the Los Angeles Times story said (presumably through an interpreter) that she never needed to learn English because she lived in an ethnic enclave in the Alhambra community.
When she arrived at the hospital she was unable to communicate her problem.
She was later diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
This problem is self inflicted and deeply systemic.
We have laws that offer no incentive for immigrants or illegal aliens to learn English.
We advertise free medical, free education, free welfare, free food stamps, free language translation services, free housing assistance, jobs and the promises of freedom and liberty.
I can't imagine moving to a foreign country without learning to speak the native tongue well enough to live safely and comfortably.
It is disappointing to me that our national immigration policy doesn't require minimum English skills and that our laws are setup to protect and serve those who won't take the time or make the effort to learn our national language.
The promises of freedom and liberty are available to all that come here, it seems to me requiring English language skills of those that do come here, is reasonable.
Theodore Roosevelt is rolling in his grave and grinding his teeth at what we have become.
We should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...
There can be no divided allegiance here.
Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...
and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
Theodore Roosevelt 1907