TX Gov To Require Public Hospitals Collect Immigration Status

“Pro life” Abbott claims his executive order requiring public hospitals to collect immigration status of its patients is about getting reimbursed from the federal government.

From The Texas Tribune:

Previous guidance for public hospitals did not include questions about immigration status. The executive order would mandate the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect this information so that the state of Texas could then bill the federal government.

“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,” Governor Abbott said in a statement on Thursday. “Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants.”

Regardless of Abbott’s motivation, he has to know that the effect of this order will be to frighten undocumented immigrants from going to the hospital at all. If an undocumented person avoids treatment for a communicable disease, such as COVID, then it can more easily spread to citizens, too.

And I’d love to know how much it is going to cost the state for all the extra administration work in gathering and processing the new data as well as the cost to “bill” the federal government and collect.

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