Posted on 07/25/2004 7:30:22 PM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
HOUSTON - While hospital districts in Texas can provide nonemergency health care to illegal immigrants, they are not required to do so, state Attorney General Greg Abbott has said in a legal opinion.
In February, the Montgomery County Hospital District's board members argued over whether they were forced to provide such health care under a new state law. They put a decision on hold and asked Abbott for an opinion.
But the legal debate of the issue in Texas goes back to 2001, when then-Attorney General John Cornyn ruled that a federal welfare overhaul five years earlier prohibited states from offering nonemergency, preventive health care to illegal immigrants unless a specific law allowed it. Texas had no such law then. Federal law requires all hospitals, public or private, to treat emergency room patients.
Cornyn issued his ruling after the Harris County Hospital District in Houston asked him for guidance. Harris County and others around the state continued providing such health care while Montgomery County, located north of Houston, and some others stopped.
State lawmakers last year passed House Bill 2292, which made such health care legal under the 1996 welfare overhaul.
When the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office in January ruled the new legislation required its county's hospital district to provide such free or discounted care to illegal immigrants, that created more confusion on the issue. The hospital district had not provided such health care since 1997.
In his opinion, issued late Friday, Abbott wrote that under the new state law, an illegal immigrant "is eligible to receive public health benefits. But an undocumented person is not entitled to receive those benefits from state funds...And he or she may be entitled to receive such benefits from local funds only if a particular hospital district permits the use of its funds for that person."
William Leigh, a board member of the Montgomery County Hospital District, said he doesn't think the board will decide to offer such health care for either the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, or during the next one, which begins Oct. 1.
The board will spend August creating the next fiscal year's budget and at that point make its final decision on whether it will offer such benefits to illegal immigrants.
"Frankly I hope we don't because I don't believe the service is necessary and I don't think the economy and taxpayers of Montgomery County can afford it," Leigh said. "I just don't think it's fiscally responsible."
Hospital district officials have said if such health care was mandatory, it would cost the county nearly $2 million the first year and more than $20 million by 2008.
Leigh said that illegal immigrants will be able to receive preventive health care at several area clinics, including one that has been designated by the federal government to take care of such individuals.
But local immigrant rights and health care activists disagree with the hospital district, saying it makes economic sense to have individuals treated early, before they need to go to an emergency room, which can be three to 10 times more expensive.
Dr. Steven Farber, a cardiologist and founder and chairman of the political action committee Healthcare Excellence and Responsible Taxation, said he wasn't surprised by the ruling but was disappointed. Farber said the issue has to be addressed "at a local level unless immigration laws change."
"The problems are still going to be there," Farber said. He is concerned about the potential health risks that the general public could face from diseases that might be brought across the border, the impact of overcrowded emergency rooms and the costs of care.
Farber said his group's goal is to bring affordable, accessible health care to everyone in the county, including 40,000 citizens without insurance.
Ping!
Preventative health care for Illegals:
PREVENT THEM FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY IN THE FIRST PLACE.
as Artie Johnson used to say; "Werrrry Interesinnk!"
JB, IIRC, several states have gone through this nutroll...
Hasn't Arizona come down on the other side of the fence on this one? That Az hospitals will continue to provide non-emergency medical care without regard to ability to pay or legal status?
But local immigrant rights and health care activists disagree with the hospital district, saying it makes economic sense to have individuals treated early, before they need to go to an emergency room, which can be three to 10 times more expensive.
***
No, it makes economic sense to deport them. Duh!
We pretty much now know that due to the risk of losing the Mexican vote, the real prevention didn't, hasn't, and won't be coming - EVER.
However, it would be refreshing if the Texas State Attorney Genera'ls ruling would be multiplied 49 times and that would be a good start.
We are the flop house of Mexico.
Not sure on that one, Jinx. I do know the state is extremely lax in handing out AHCCCS cards to illegals. Prop 200 would end that as it is not federally mandated.
Prop 200 has my support...
If you want to meet one of the main architects of Prop 200, come on out this Wednesday evening to meet Randy Graf. He's holding an "Alternate Town Hall Meeting" at the SV Library at 6:30 since our incumbent RINO is disinclined/scared to visit here.
"Don't be a girlie-man! Vote Graf for Congress!"
bttt
Many Americans can't afford preventative health care, and it should NOT be available to illegal aliens. The illegals use the ER for everything from runny noses to dandruff. I just got through paying a bill for over a thousand bucks for my grandson's emergency room care. Any medical care given to illegals should be paid for by Vicente Fox who sent them here.
Yes --- because if it's early and there is no life-threatening emergency, they've got all the time in the world to be shipped back so they can obtain care in Mexico where it's much more cheaper. There are actually some illegals who go back to Mexico where they really can afford a doctor --- but those illegals are very rare, most prefer to be moochers.
Let's hope they do something to slow down this problem --- even though the federal government is sending down millions of dollars to bail out the border states, it's not going to be nearly enough. Interesting how rural hospitals throughout the USA are allowed to close their doors, making access for citizens difficult, the federal government does everything it can to keep border hospitals well-financed -- but the problem is the more that is sent the much more is needed.
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040725-147002.shtml
Federal money to help public hospitals
County Attorney José Rodríguez said El Paso County was one of several border counties that commissioned a study to determine the financial impact of uncompensated health care.
"The amount of money they're saying that Texas will get is not enough to cover our costs for uncompensated health care," he said. "We also don't know yet whether the states will allocate the money, and whether the money will get to border communities with the greatest needs, like El Paso."
Of course we have to treat them free but Mexico offers no such reciprocity to Americans who happen to sick there and need health care.
And you don't see them doing much about do you.
At this point in time Mexico posses a larger threat than Castro's Cuba. Mark my words.
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