Allen came to Yonkers a few years ago to be with her son, since deceased. She is undocumented, with no insurance and apparently nowhere to go. She’s been hospitalized since a fall in December.

While the health care professionals discuss the policy issue at hand, Allen shares with Len a memory from her youth in Green Island, Jamaica.

A big sister take me on her back and take me out in the deep and she would say, ‘Hold on.’ I would hold on and she would take me all the way out until I couldn’t see, and the land was like a pin.

The full story is posted below.

(Photos: Seth Harrison/The Journal News )

Len Maniace
The Journal News

YONKERS – Neita Allen, who turns 100 today, charms nearly everyone who meets her with her songs, her tales of Jamaica, and her good cheer despite adversity.

For the last 327 days, most of the people meeting Allen have been the staff and fellow patients at St. Joseph’s Medical Center, which has been Allen’s home since she the femur in her right thigh was broken in December.

Even though Allen was ready to leave the hospital after 10 days, just when she will be released is unclear, hospital staff say. She ordinarily would be a candidate to go home with an aide or to a nursing home. But Allen cannot afford that. She has no health insurance and, as an undocumented immigrant, does not qualify for Medicaid, said Dr. Nicholas DeRobertis, medical director of the hospital in downtown Yonkers.

Meanwhile, the costs for St. Joseph’s mount; they totaled $213,600 as of yesterday, the hospital said.

“That’s where our dilemma stands,” DeRobertis said. “So we’ve taken her under our wing and now she is like family.”

On the fifth floor of St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Allen fills the roles of beloved grandmother and celebrity. Hospital staff members greet her cheerfully, and on Tuesday praised her wardrobe for the day: a red blazer, matching red scrunchie for her white hair, white blouse and black slacks.

“Happy birthday, grandma. She’s sooo cute,” said one female patient, using a walker to make her way down the hall where Allen was spending part of that afternoon.

As she moved her arms through the air for exercise, Allen dispensed spiritual wisdom and told of youthful adventures at a beach in Green Island, Jamaica.

“A big sister take me on her back and take me out in the deep and she would say, ‘Hold on,’ ” said Allen, one of 11 children. “I would hold on and she would take me all the way out until I couldn’t see, and the land was like a pin.”

Allen left Jamaica five or six years ago to live with her son, Wesley, and his wife in Yonkers, DeRobertis said. Wesley died last year, and Allen continued to live with her daughter-in-law until her fall at home on Dec. 9, DeRobertis said. Her daughter-in-law did not respond to a request through the hospital to be interviewed. DeRobertis said she works full time and would not be able to care for Allen without help.

As far as the hospital knows, she has no family in Jamaica.

Medicaid will pay only a small portion of Allen’s medical bill – for the emergency treatment she received that lasted about 1 1/2 weeks, DeRobertis said. And the hospital will not receive that until Allen is discharged, he said.

Allen’s case is perhaps more dramatic, but it is not unique, health-care officials said. Though he said he knew of no data on the problem, William Van Slyke, a spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents the state’s hospitals, said limited Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants threatens hospitals with more red ink.

After eight years of growing deficits, only one half of the state’s hospitals finished with a surplus last year, Van Slyke said. The hospitals picked up $1.65 billion in charity care of all types in 2007, for which they received roughly $847 million in reimbursements from the federal government, he said.

In hope of stemming the losses, Van Slyke said, the association has supported legislation in Washington that would permit illegal immigrants to be fully covered under Medicaid.

Although both of the presidential candidates have talked about the need to provide more health insurance to Americans, neither has proposed providing insurance to illegal immigrants, said Georgeanne Chapin, CEO of Hudson Health Plan, a Tarrytown nonprofit managed-care organization.

“So we are going to be living with this problem for a long, long time,” Chapin said.

Allen said she was thankful for the care she has received. A deeply religious woman, she frequently asks God to bless her caregivers.

In turn, they said, Allen’s friendly talk cheered them, including humorous stories about life on her father’s farm in Jamaica.

Allen once cut sugar cane to eat there and then tried to hide her misdeed, said Aneita Louis, a nursing assistant, also born in Jamaica.

“She would cut the best cane and replant the head so he wouldn’t notice,” Louis said.

Allen said she doesn’t get tired of talking.

“I love to talk if it is something sensible,” Allen said, “but if it is foolishness, don’t come to me.”