Why Hospitals Don't Like Paying for Care of Illegal Immigrants
A controversy has arisen over an Arizona bill that would require hospitals to identify and report any patients who happen to be illegal immigrants. The focus of that debate is whether such a law would deter illegal immigrants from seeking health care. But for some hospitals around the country, this is also a matter of cold, hard cash.
A few years ago, for instance, the Illinois Medical Center in Chicago planned to send a Mexican immigrant in a coma back to his home country for treatment. According to an investigative piece in the New York Times, this practice has become widespread, if not common. The problem for hospitals is that illegal immigrants are often uninsured, and the cost of caring for them -- including post-discharge care -- may fall on the institution.
The Arizona proposal would require hospitals to confirm that an individual is a legal U.S. resident before admitting him for non-emergency care. If the person is here illegally, the hospital would have to notify federal immigration officers. The hospital would be allowed to provide emergency care to an illegal immigrant, but would then have to report his immigration status to the authorities.
Not surprisingly, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce, a Republican, strongly supports the bill. Last year, Pearce sponsored Arizona's tough immigration bill that, among other things, requires people to show identity documents when challenged by police. The Obama Administration is now challenging that law in court.
Although the hospital bill was pulled from one senate committee after failing to gain enough support to pass, Republicans plan to reintroduce it in another committee.
Similar bills could crop up elsewhere. In the first six months of 2010, 44 state legislatures passed and their governors signed 314 laws and resolutions related to immigration -- 21 percent more than in the same period in 2009. South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Michigan introduced legislation similar to Arizona's immigration law. And that was before the electoral wave that swept many Republican governors into office last November.
Hospital executives probably see both sides of the issue: On one hand, they don't want to be traffic cops and don't want to be seen by their immigrant communities as adversaries. On the other hand, they have a serious problem in coping with the financial burden of indigent and uninsured patients. In states like Texas, Arizona, and California, where many of these patients are undocumented immigrants, caring for them may threaten the solvency of some institutions, particularly in the public sector.
All of which returns us to the main reason why the number of state initiatives on immigration is rising: the failure of the federal government to deal with the issue. President Obama indicated in his State of the Union address that he'd like to step into the gap. But he's going to need some political support from both parties to do so. In the meantime, don't be surprised if more bills like the one in Arizona pop up.
Image supplied courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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