International Charities Step Up Efforts to Get Health Care to the Needy

Overwhelmed by pleas for help, hospitals and charity organizations are going to great lengths to match needy patients from around the world with health care in the United States, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Desperately ill patients from around the world are directed to hospitals by a variety of sources, including civic groups and missionary organizations, the newspaper says.

American hospitals and doctors say they often have to wrestle with tough questions when they receive requests for aid.

Not only do they need to make sure they will be paid for expensive operations, but they also worry that patients treated successfully in the United States will not be able to survive when they return to their home countries and cannot afford to get all the treatments they need.