Zika pregnant women from Latin American giving birth in US – costing the US perhaps a million dollars each – June 2016

Zika mosquitoes are biting in America now — and we’re still not ready NY Post

• “Health officials refuse to disclose how many will be uninsured immigrants whose health bills will be paid by taxpayers.”
• "Any pregnant woman — here legally or not — can get emergency Medicaid to cover prenatal care and child birth. Babies born in the United States are automatically eligible for lifetime care if disabled, which, in the case of Zika-caused ailments, could cost $10 million per child.”
• “Anticipating public outrage, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hiding the issue. The agency labels all Zika infections brought into the United States as “travel related” — lumping together Americans who caught it on a trip and migrants coming here for care.”

Reminder

• A woman can be a US tourist for a short time very easily.
• CDC guesses the life-long cost of microcephaly to be $1,000,000 to $10,000,000
• Thus a $ 1,000 airplane ticket might save more than $1,000,000 in medical expenses.
• Abortion is not legal in most Latin American Countries
• About half of pregnancies in Latin America are not planned

Unknowns:

• Will Medicare continue to pay when the woman travels back to her home country?
• Might a mother leave her Zika birth defect child in the US
  far better instituional care in the US than in most other countries.

Example

• Baby with Zika-related microcephaly born at New Jersey hospital June 2016
  "The mother, who has relatives in New Jersey, traveled to the United States from Honduras in hopes of receiving better medical care because she knew her baby may have Zika-related problems, according to Al-Khan."

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