si senor, make my visit free

I don't know if you've been following the latest Mexican border talks, but the president of Mexico is calling the US move to fortify the border a "grave" mistake. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing the debate on either side of "the fence". The truth is...if the Mexican government would do something to try and actually improve the living conditions and economic success of their citizens, we wouldn't have to be in this big debate over whether their citizens should be crossing the border. So while the Mexican president tries to issue statements against the border fortification under the guise of "concern" for the safety of his border-bouncing citizens, if he was truly concerned he would do something to better their lives back home.

I doubt that this border fortification is going to be the answer to all of our problems. Many suggest stiffer penalties for businesses that hire illegals and keeping a closer watch on tax funded services. After all, if there were no jobs to be had and no free medical and education, they wouldn't bother illegally crossing the border in the first place.

In the meantime, I may have come up with a solution to level out the playing field a bit. Each year, thousands of Americans go without health insurance and adversely, without medical treatment. Whether their reasons for being uninsured have to do with unemployment, lower wages, or being strapped with a costly high risk life insurance plan, the solution appears to be staring us in the face.

Seeing as illegal immigrants are never denied service, and have access to virtually free medical care that their beleaguered American hosts are not afforded, why not pretend to be an illegal alien when you need medical service? Why not walk into the emergency room every time you want to see a doctor, and give them a fake name in a very convincing accent? Sure, you may have to polish up on your accent but think of the money you may save.

It may be dishonest. It may even be illegal, but they don't crack down on the illegal aliens using these services for free, so what makes us think that the US government would have the manpower to crack down on citizens taking advantage of the same "benefits"?