collapse." From 1993 to 2003, the newspaper reported, the American population grew 12 percent, but emergency room visits grew 27 percent. "In that same period, however, 425 emergency departments closed, along with about 700 hospitals and nearly 200,000 beds." As well, in 2003, ambulances were diverted from emergency rooms 501,000 times because the emergency rooms were full(Kirkwood, 2006)."
             One of the issues at the center of controversy is the fact that many of the emergency room visits by illegal immigrants is for non emergency care. The illegal immigrants are undocumented and unable to locate primary care for their family members, thus resort to appearing at emergency rooms for their routine health care needs and concerns.
             Several years ago the Bush administration allocated more than $70 million in funds to California for the purpose of paying for the health care of illegal immigrants, however, that only covered a percentage of the actual and ongoing costs, which leads to continued public a
             ...