Illegal Immigrants and Medicaid And The Cost To Texans

By Ron Byrd

As it has been the talk from some time now about Illegal border crossing and the cost to host and help those in need, often we don’t stop and think about the burden on our healthcare system and what it cost Texas taxpayers.
 
While the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) post about the care that hospitals and doctors should adhere to, when it comes to the Immigrant Rights Healthcare Fact Sheet, it plainly states that you can still get health care without insurance. This applies to all citizens and those crossing the border.

Doctors and nurses care about your health, not your immigration status. Health care workers are reminded that they shouldn’t ask for immigration status for those who are admitted to Hospital emergency rooms. ER’s should help anyone that is needing emergency services. DSHS instructs people that if asked about your health insurance, people are allowed to say, “I am not eligible for health insurance and don’t want to apply.”

AG Ken Paxton in his January lawsuit discovered that Texans pay between $579 and $717 million each year for public hospital districts to provide
uncompensated care for illegal aliens. 

Texans paid $152 million to house illegal criminal aliens for just one year.

Texans pay between $62 million and $90 million to include illegal aliens in the state Emergency Medicaid program.

Texans paid more than $1 million for The Family Violence Program to provide services to illegal aliens for one year.  

Texans pay between $30 million and $38 million per year on perinatal coverage for illegal aliens through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  

Texans pay between $31 million and $63 million to educate unaccompanied alien children each year.  

In a House Homeland Security Committee report noted that health care costs, including Medicaid expenditures for illegal immigrants estimated at over $5 billion a year, the costs of the fentanyl crisis, law enforcement costs, and costs for states to educate migrant children. It also points to the costs of housing and sheltering— particularly in the enormous costs seen in cities like New York City where tens of thousands of migrants have traveled after being released into the U.S., and the costs to ranchers and local businesses near the border. New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year estimated the city’s crisis alone could cost $12 billion by 2025.” The Center for Immigration Studies in May 2023 stated that spending could cost as much as an astounding $451 billion per.

With the United States population roughly at 330 million, and the additional 15 million illegal migrants if federal and state government are spending only $160 billion per year, that would be equivalent of $500 per American man, woman child and retiree.

If the $500 per American was not spent on migrants, it would otherwise go to American needs, vs higher wages, lower taxes and lower rents, reduced government deficits or more investment in Americans’ schools, technology, and infrastructure.

Even if the migrants can secure jobs, their wages are often too little to pay off their smuggling debts, their rental checks, and basic needs.

In Texas alone, it’s reported that Undocumented immigrants (UDI’s) represent and estimated 6.7% of the population of Texas (1.65 million people).

Trauma literature from the southwest US had documented that smuggling of immigrants in overloaded vehicles resulted in 38 crashes being chased by border patrol that send many to Hospitals emergency rooms with severe trauma.

In a study over four years at Texas A&M/CHRISTUS Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, (150 miles by road from the closest border with Mexico), a total of 128 patients were enrolled that reveled 79.7% were male, the length of stay was 13.2 days with a maximum stay of 210 days . Motor vehicle accidents accounted for 75% of trauma patients brought to the Hospital by Border Patrol.

Thirty of these patients were admitted on 4 distinct calendar days in separate months while fleeing from Border Patrol in vehicles that resulted in multiple-casualty accidents totaling over $6.8 million in hospital charges.

So, the question is, where and when will it all end. Compliance and ethical standards are in playas many families want a better life for their children and as most of would agree, we would beg, borrow, or steal to feed hungry children. But breaking the law brings consequences.

Today, illegal aliens and their U.S. children are eligible to receive emergency medical service, primary and secondary education, school nutrition services and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and food stamps. With the few facilities that can collect to date in Southern Texas, Attorney General Paxton says, “Texas will always welcome those who legally immigrate, but we cannot continue forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for individuals who skirt the law and skip the line. I will continue to fight for justice, safety, and prosperity for all Texans.”