Texas Public Hospital To Ask Patients Of Citizenship Status

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Signs direct to the entrance of the Bellville Medical Center, in Bellville, Texas, September 1, 2021. - Hospitals in Texas are overwhelmed due to record numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations. In rural areas, the most seriously ill patients are stuck in facilities that are not equipped to handle them. Every day, one of them dies because they cannot find a place in a facility better suited to their needs. (Photo by Francois PICARD / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images) — Signs direct to the entrance of the Bellville Medical Center, in Bellville, Texas, September 1, 2021. (Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:52 AM – Saturday, November 2, 2024

Texas public hospitals will now ask patients if they are in the United States legally to keep a record of the funds spent on illegal migrants.

On Friday, an executive order from Governor Greg Abbot (R-Texas) went into effect that states public hospitals are required to collect information regarding the “cost of medical care provided to illegal immigrants,” the number of inpatient discharges and the number of emergency visits, then submit that data to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission on a quarterly basis.

However, even though the hospitals must ask the patients their legal status, the patients are not required to respond.

The policy will be enforced at hospitals enrolled in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and any other facilities identified by the commission.

The governor’s office has stated that the first submission will be due on March 1^st, 2025.

After that, the commission has to submit the total cost for medical care provided to illegal migrants to the governor, lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house on an annual basis beginning on January 1^st, 2026.

The order also says that patients are to be told that the information will not affect the patient’s medical care.

The executive order also states that the federal government “may and should be obligated to reimburse the state of Texas for the costs that its open border policies have imposed on Texans.”

“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” Abbott said in the statement, though migrant encounters at the border began rising while Donald Trump was president in the months after April 2020 through the November election. “Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants.”

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