Illegal aliens released into the United States interior are costing American taxpayers, and the public hospitals they help fund, billions in unpaid medical bills every year, a report from Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee details.
The report, wherein Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) notes the failures of President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, revealed the extent to which illegal immigration wreaks havoc on the nation’s hospitals intended to provide first-class care for Americans and legal immigrants.
“Hospital and emergency room care for illegal aliens is one of the most significant expenses,” the report states, mentioning that illegal aliens typically have no form of health insurance and therefore rely especially on emergency room services for free care.
“Consequently, this has led to significant costs for hospitals because providers are often not reimbursed for these services,” the report states:
In a January 2021 filing challenging the Biden administration’s deportation moratorium, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote that his state alone was required to pay anywhere between $62- 90 million per year to cover illegal aliens under its Emergency Medicaid program. [Emphasis added]
He also pointed out that between 2006-2008, uncompensated costs borne by Texas state hospitals providing care to illegal aliens ranged from $597 million to $717 million. That’s as much as $1.03 billion in May 2023 dollars. [Emphasis added]
In Florida, for Fiscal Year 2021, illegal aliens cost state hospitals about $312 million. Meanwhile, in Illinois, a statewide healthcare benefits program for illegal aliens has ballooned from a projected $2 to $4 million cost to what has now become a $1.1 billion program for taxpayers.
Locally, in Yuma, Arizona, executives with the Yuma Regional Medical Center said that in just one year, taxpayers were left with $26 million in unpaid medical bills from illegal aliens who showed up to the hospital requesting free care.
“Some migrants come to us with minor ailments but many of them come in with significant disease. We have had migrant patients on dialysis, cardiac catheterization and in need of heart surgery,” Dr. Robert Trenschel, CEO of the hospital, previously told the House Homeland Security Committee. “Many are very sick. They have long-term complications of chronic disease that have not been cared for. Some end up in the ICU for 60 days or more.”
One of the main strains on the hospital is pregnant illegal aliens arriving with little-to-no prior prenatal care, putting them at high risk for potentially serious complications which results in longer, costly stays at the hospital.
The issue has been raised by more than just House Republicans.
Most recently, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the U.S.-Mexico border to warn of the massive waves of illegal immigration that are straining the nation’s security and social safety net resources.
During his visit, Kennedy said he talked to local officials in Arizona who explained that their hospitals’ maternity wards are so packed with pregnant illegal aliens that American women are having to reschedule their delivery dates.
“Moms occupied 32 of 36 beds in Yuma hospital maternity ward so that local moms had to delay induced pregnancies for two weeks,” Kennedy wrote in a Twitter post.
Months ago, the Federation for American Immigration Reform reported that illegal immigration costs the nation’s hospital systems at least $23 billion annually — $8.2 billion of which is uncompensated medical care for illegal aliens.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.