Trying to combat fears in community that taking advantage of charity care could lead to deportation.
By: David Campbell
The Princeton Human Services Commission on Wednesday brainstormed ways to combat fears among undocumented aliens that if they go to the hospital to take advantage of charity health-care services offered there, they would be reported to federal immigration authorities and deported.
To help get the word out that there is nothing to fear, commission members agreed to devise fliers in Spanish to be distributed at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church and possibly elsewhere alerting the public that the University Medical Center at Princeton in fact does not report undocumented aliens who come there for charity care.
The commission heard a presentation Wednesday evening by Jasper Daniels, charity-care coordinator at UMCP, who described the subsidized and free health care the hospital offers to qualified patients.
He said UMCP gives out more than $2 million in charity care each year to the uninsured and the needy, including some undocumented aliens. "We give out quite a bit of free care," he said.
Mr. Daniels said UMCP does not deny qualified patients charity care because they are undocumented aliens. And he said it is not the hospital’s policy to report such patients to federal immigration authorities, which in recent months have orchestrated several raids on the homes of Hispanic families in the area and deported members.
Mr. Daniels said the Hispanic community is aware of the hospital’s charity-care service, but said there’s "a lot of fear" within the community that if undocumented aliens who are sick come forward to receive medical care, they will be reported.
Commission member Aroldo Rodas urged that something be done to combat fear in the Hispanic community, indicating that untreated illnesses pose a public-health hazard.
"We need to do something to tell them not to be afraid," he said. "I’m talking about general medical health to help keep the community safe."
Commission Chairwoman Marjorie Smith said of the proposed fliers, "I think a flier needs to be simple, it needs to be non-threatening, and in very few words."

