Uninsured, illegal, and in need of long-term care; the repatriation of undocumented immigrants by U.S. hospitals.

Illegal immigration and healthcare costs both continue to rise and cause healthcare providers to resort to increasingly desperate measures to control uncompensated care costs. This Comment focuses on the newest cost-shifting tactic—hospitals transporting uninsured, undocumented immigrants to their native countries. The story of Luis Alberto Jiménez dramatizes this new form of hospital cost containment. Jiménez, an illegal immigrant residing in Florida, was transported to Guatemala by Martin Memorial Medical Center, which had cared for him for years at a cost of $1.5 million. 1 Jiménez had suffered devastating injuries in a car crash with a drunken Floridian, and Martin Memorial saved his life. 2 While Jiménez was in poor physical condition, the hospital facilitated a guardianship for him. 3